Tamaki's Cousin
by rebelliouself5
Summary: Kyouya has left Japan due to his father's actions and is now living with Tamaki's uncle in England. He just wanted to escape and finish his schooling before getting a job, but what he didn't expect was to fall in love with Tamaki's cousin. KyouyaxOC R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Kyouya Ohtori stepped off the plane, about to collapse from exhaustion. He'd just taken a flight from Japan to India, then from India to Denmark, and finally, from Denmark to London; all this just to escape Yoshio Ohtori, his heartless father that had caused all of this, but more about that later. Kyouya had told the Host Club that his father had finally snapped and forbade him to participate in the Host Club, so Tamaki had helped him to escape by paying for a roundabout trip to London, England. He was going to be staying with Tamaki's deceased Aunt Kira's brother-in-law. Her husband had died a few years ago from leukemia, but his brother, Sam, was still in contact with Tamaki since he went to Japan often for business trips. Kyouya sighed and collapsed into a chair next a young man of about 25 with short brown hair from what could be seen of it (it was covered by a black driver's hat), black long-sleeve shirt and slacks that was reading the paper.

Kyouya was just about to get up to get his bag from baggage claim when the man turned his head and said, "Kyouya, right? Yoshio Ohtori's son?" Kyouya stared dumbly at him completely lost for words for once in his life. He quickly collected himself into a composed statue and said, "And you are?"with as much disdain as he could muster while still shocked that this guy knew who he was.

The man chuckled and set down the paper on the empty seat next to him. "I'm Jien, I work for Sam Carson, Tamaki's uncle. He showed me a picture of you so I wouldn't have to use a sign and broadcast your location to everyone." Jien smiled as he pulled out a driver's license, birth certificate, and passport and handed it to Kyouya, "I was warned that you wouldn't believe me without some proof." Kyouya took all three of the identification papers and saw with his expert eye that they were real. He sighed in a relieved manner and gave Jien a small smile of gratitude as he handed him back the papers and got up to get his surprisingly small amount of luggage. Jien got up too, leaving the paper behind. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, we have to go pick up Tamaki's cousins, Maaya and Katarina from the train station once we get to the town that Sam lives in since they're coming home from school and it's on the way to his house."

"She takes a train home from school?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, they go to St. Judith's Boarding School which is a two hour ride from here and a five hour drive to the town so Maaya and Katarina only come home for holidays and long weekends. Also, a lot of their friends will be coming down later for Christmas, and their brother, Jack, is coming home from Oxford University in a few days," he said calmly, Kyouya noticed that he had a thicker, richer accent compared to everyone else he'd heard, meaning that he was from southern England, or had been living there a long time, since Kyouya didn't think he looked English, but wasn't sure.

"So where is Sam's house anyway? And what does he do for a living? Tamaki didn't tell me much about him, just that Sam's sister-in-law was his aunt that passed away a few years ago," Kyouya asked curiously as they waited for the thick crowd surrounding the conveyor belt to disperse.

"It's a seven hour drive south of here, and St. Judith's Academy is only two hours away, but she'll most likely already be on the train by the time we reach it, that and the school is a half hour out of the way to Sam's house. Sam owns an international publishing company called Carson Press Incorporated. Also, it was originally owned by his older half-brother, Christian, Maaya and Katarina's father, but he died when they were eleven from Leukemia," Sam replied, grabbing Kyouya's clearly marked suitcase and duffel bag.

"And their mother?" Kyouya asked as Jien led him through the airport, clearly familiar with the layout of it.

"She died in a car accident two months before their father. They miss her, we all do; Kira Sakamoto-Carson was a very kind and generous woman. Also, she was one of the most talented musicians in Japan, you name it she could play it, except for the bagpipe, she never did master that." Sam said with a sigh, it clearly was a painful memory, even though it had happened five years ago.

"Wow, both parents in two months, that had to hit them pretty hard, "Kyouya mused, wondering what Maaya and Katarina would be like.

Jien shrugged in response. "They handled better than I would have imagined since they stuck together, everyone but Justin and Zach. They're Maaya and Katarina's older brothers, but after their father died, the boys just disappeared and we haven't heard anything from either of them. Ah, well, I suppose it can't be helped," he said with a sigh before straightening his shoulders and leading Kyouya through the automatic glass doors to a black Cadillac resting against the curb where cars usually weren't allowed, but as they walked by a guy sitting in a chair with a paper, Jien tossed the man a roll of money that the guy caught without looking up. "Thanks, Jien."

"No problem, Al. After all, you're the one that gets more out of it than me, if I may say so myself."

"Well, you got a point there, but I could get into a lot o' trouble for this," the man called Al said, lowering his paper with a smirk.

"True, true, but what would the owner of Carson Press Inc., say to me if I forced his guest of honor to walk across the entire parking lot after taking three plane rides to get here?"Jien replied with a shake of his head.

"Alright, you got me there, mate. Have a good'un."

"You too, ol' chap." And with that, Jien opened the door for Kyouya before putting his luggage in the trunk and driving off.

As Jien drove, Kyouya leaned back and looked around, the Cadillac had dark tinted windows so the light didn't hurt his eyes and the inside was black leather, with two rows of seats facing each other so that one was turned backwards and there was a divider. It was pretty much a mini-limousine if such a thing existed. He sighed in relief and closed his eyes, quickly falling into a deep and restful sleep that he hadn't truly had in a long, long time.

When he woke up, he saw a girl with dark brown hair that was curly and went a few inches past her shoulders. She wore a baseball cap that was navy blue and white with a lion in a circle on it, and she was soaking wet, that much was obvious as she laughed and wrung out her hair onto the concrete. Her bright blue eyes flashed with joy behind slim black frames that complemented her face nicely. The girl entered the car and tossed a black knapsack onto the floor as a boy with honey-blonde hair that was so curly, it was almost an afro and light brown eyes. Kyouya noted that he looked unsure of himself, as if he wasn't sure if it was a wise choice to be there.

"So, Maaya, where's Katarina?" the boy asked, as he took the towel Jien handed him from the front and dried his hair as best he could.

"She had to go visit Sam's cousin, Elise, to get some stuff and officialise Sam as her adopted father. It's a long story as to why," Maaya explained calmly as she took off her hat and rubbed a towel into her hair. "Man, it's raining cats and dogs out there," she muttered in exasperation.

"Pretty soon it'll start raining frogs and hummingbirds," the boy joked with a smirk, causing Maaya to snort and roll her eyes at him.

"Excuse my friend, he forgot to take his medication today," she said to Kyouya with a smile as her friend stuck out his tongue at her.

"So, you're Kyouya? Hmmm, you look just how Tamaki described you, but not nearly as thin and not as depressed, but that could just be me," she mused.

"Figures, that would be Tamaki, dramatize everything," Kyouya muttered with a shake of his head at his somewhat deranged friend.

She nodded in agreement before saying, "I'm Maaya Sakamoto-Carson by the way, and this is my friend Tyler Felker," as she held out her hand in greeting.

"Kyouya Ohtori," he replied, shaking her hand. "I guess our greetings got thrown a little off track."

"That's for sure. Sam should have told me you were coming. I'm going to kill him when he gets back from New York," she said, clearly annoyed as she pulled a cell phone out of her bag and typing a message on it before putting it away. Maaya sighed and leaned back against her seat in a tired manner as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"You mean he didn't tell you I was coming?" Kyouya asked, wondering how her uncle could have neglected to tell his niece such an important piece of information.

"Nope, and for that I'm gonna kill him. He's on a business trip to New York at the moment, so I sent him a text message. God, he's such a frickin' frackin' idiot sometimes," she replied as she pulled two books out of her black bag. She then handed a huge book to Tyler and checked to make sure hers wasn't damaged from the rain. The title read _Eclipse_ with a ribbon printed on the front jacket cover that was held together by just one thread. Tyler's book was a history on World War I and II. It looked to be about 1,500 pages or more. Tyler glanced at Maaya's book and asked in an incredulous voice, "You're reading that book again?!"

"No," she replied calmly, "I'm reading _The Bell Jar_ by Sylvia Plath, but the cover is so old that I want to protect it, so I'm using the book jacket of _Eclipse_."

"Ok, for a second I thought St. Judith's had banned it or something."

"Na, half the books in the library are worse than this. Look at Hemingway, this is just about a girl going crazy and how it affects her and everyone around her."

"Yeah, in the words of Kat Stratford, 'Hemingway was an alcoholic, abusive misogynist who hung around Picasso trying to nail his leftovers'. That about right?"

"Yup, that's right," Maaya replied with a small smile.

"Hemingway?" Kyouya asked, never having heard of him before.

"He's a well known author that we can't stand, a lot of people like him and think he's brilliant, but we prefer to read works by other authors," she answered, putting her book back in the bag now that she knew it was okay. "So, why are you staying with us, if I may ask," Maaya asked, her eyes full of curiosity and bewilderment, but her face said nothing.

"I don't really get along with my father. He and I disagree on certain things and I don't like the way he handles his business at times," Kyouya replied, the mask never slipped from his face, but his eyes showed a little pain as he recalled what his father had said to him. Tyler didn't notice this, being too absorbed in his book, but Maaya did, even if it was hard to read.

FLASHBACK

_Kyouya quietly stepped into his father's office and stood in front of his desk wondering what his father wanted to talk to him about. "You wanted to see me, Father?"_

_"Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that Fujioka Haruhi girl. She seems very bright for her age and I hear that she shows a lot of promise. Therefore, I want you to marry her. I know that you two are friends and in the same club, so it shouldn't be that difficult. That's all, you can go." Yoshio Ohtori said calmly, as if he'd just asked for a glass of water, waving a hand to dismiss his son._

_Kyouya stared dumbly at his father for a few seconds before slipping his mask back into place and stating quite calmly with a steady voice, "She won't marry someone she doesn't love. Haruhi puts her studies before anything else."_

_"Then you'll have to woo her. I don't care how; I just want you engaged to that girl before you graduate."_

_"….." Kyouya stared at his father in disbelief, still unable to believe that his father was actually suggesting this with no show of emotion at all. "She won't marry me, no matter what I do. And trust me on this, Father; I will do nothing to make her fall in love with me when she already loves another."_

_"If you do this, you will inherit the company, Kyouya. Do you hear me? If you do not _marry _Fujioka Haruhi, you won't get a cent from me when I die," Yoshio Ohtori threatened, a growl seeping into his voice._

_"Well then, I'll just have to live with that. I will not condemn my friend to a life she doesn't deserve when I know she will be happier with someone else," Kyouya replied, anger flashing in his eyes as he pushed his glasses up his nose before quickly striding out of the room._

END FLASHBACK

"Ah, that explains everything," Maaya replied, snapping Kyouya out of his two second reverie.

Tyler nodded his head in agreement, "Yeah, we know so many fucked up parents, it's not even funny."

"Hey, no cussing!" Jien reprimanded Tyler from the front.

"Sorry, Jien, it won't happen again," Tyler replied quickly.

"Well anyway, there's Caleb's dad, Jack's dad, Ally's mom, Garrett's mom, my grandmother, Devon's grandfather, Cole's dad, Patrick's dad, and Kat's mom; I think that's everyone," she replied, counting off her fingers as she said the names.

Kyouya leaned back against the seat, glad that they hadn't pressed him for details. He lowered his eyelids so that they were just open a tiny bit and as he watched, Tyler continued to read as Maaya pulled out a pencil and notebook and began drawing, fine with letting him sleep. He closed his eyes entirely, and with the thought that he might actually be able to leave his father and past behind, he fell asleep.

He awoke to someone shaking him, and as he opened his eyes, he saw Maaya looking at him, her face inches from his as she shook his shoulder gently. Upon seeing that he was awake, she pulled away and quickly exited the car without a sound, leaving Kyouya to fight off the last remnants of sleep himself. He stepped out of the car and looked at his surroundings. The car was parked in front of a huge, Victorian style mansion made from gray stone with many turrets and towers attached. There was a lot of land, at least five acres all around them, with hills, a small vineyard, and a garden. It was peaceful, and the edge of their lands was bordered by hundreds of trees of all kinds.

Kyouya followed Maaya and Tyler in through the old, French double oak doors that were wide open. There was a huge front room with a single staircase leading upstairs to a hallway that circled around the entire house and a doorway to a large living room with a few couches and big screen TV hanging on the wall complete with DVD, VCR and a surround sound stereo system. The house was huge, with a 15 foot ceiling and four floors not including the cellar.

Kyouya noticed some butlers and maids taking his and Tyler's luggage upstairs while Maaya carried her own which consisted of a suitcase, her black bag, and a huge duffel bag that had ST. JUDITH'S ACADEMY stamped on it. "Come on, I'll show you two your rooms, and give you a brief tour of the house if you wish," Maaya said as she walked past the staircase to the west wing of the house and led them up a different staircase so that they were on the far west side of the house. They walked past a bathroom and a few guest rooms before stopping by Maaya's so she could toss her stuff inside before shutting the door again and leading them past three more shut doors, around a corner , where they stopped in front of two rooms next to each other. "The one on the left is Kyouya's and the one on the right is yours, Tyler. The room to your immediate right is my art room, do not go in there or I will flay you alive, okay? Next to that is my study slash living room. It has two desks, a TV, couches, and tons of books. The room to the left of mine is Katarina's. Oh, and the first door on the far right at the end of the hallway is a music room with a baby grand piano, cello, two violins, a viola, flute, lute, and a couple guitars. They're all in cases, and the violin that has K.S. engraved on the case is off limits because it belonged to my mother. Anything else is fair game if you wish. There's a small kitchen upstairs while the main one is on the first floor. If you need anything, you can call me, Jien, or one of the staff, " she said calmly before turning on her heel and entering her room so that she could unpack and get settled in.

Kyouya sighed, he'd slept for seven hours straight, and for another twenty minutes as they drove from the train station to the mansion, but he was still exhausted. He leaned against the wall and surveyed room; it was simple, with a blue carpet and white walls. There was a queen sized bed, a dresser, closet, and a few paintings on the wall. The bedspread was beige with intricate patterns sewn into the fabric; it was simple yet elegant, like most of the house. His luggage was sitting on a trunk at the foot of the bed; apparently someone had told the staff beforehand which room was his. He opened his suitcase to find that his laptop was fine. It was wrapped in foam and bubble wrap and inside a cardboard box hidden among some of his clothes. The rest were in his duffel bag. After making sure his laptop was okay, Kyouya collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep without even taking off his glasses.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oi! Kyouya, wake up you dummkopf!" he heard someone shout as he was jarred from sleep. _What the? _He thought to himself as his door was opened and a stream of light fell on him. He turned over and glared at whoever was shouting at him, it was far too early. Then the day came rushing back to him, the plane rides, Jien, the car ride, Maaya and Tyler, and finally, falling asleep on the bed. As he glared at Maaya, he saw her glaring just as harshly right back. His glare turned into a look of surprise as he realized she wasn't scared of him and wasn't going to back down. She lowered her gaze and sighed, "Gomen, I didn't mean to be rude. It's just, you've been sleeping all day and dinner's almost ready so I wondered if you wanted something to eat. You don't have to eat with us, I can have someone bring it up, but I thought I'd just ask." She glanced at him with a look of concern and worry before turning away and leaving him alone to sort out his thoughts.

He sighed, he couldn't afford to act rashly, these people didn't even know him and they were offering him a place to stay and get back on his feet. He swung his legs out of bed and quickly changed into something more appropriate before running a come through his hair and leaving. A maid was standing outside his door. "Mr. Ohtori, I was told to lead you to the dining room if you wished," she said nervously, looking at him from under her eyelashes, clearly afraid that he would lash out at her. Kyouya smiled slightly and nodded, causing her to visibly brighten up and lead him through the winding corridors to the dining room. As they walked Kyouya thought about what Maaya had said and her look. Why would she look at him with concern, was it because she disapproved of him being her cousin's friend, or did she truly care about him? He shook his head and decided he'd find out more before making any judgments or conclusions. The maid led him to a closed door and bowed before leaving him to stand outside the door. He took a deep breath, feeling nervous for some reason and pushed open the door to a Japanese style room. Did they do all this for him? The furniture was Kotatsu, which was used only in the winter, which it was, and Maaya and Tyler were sitting on the floor. "Hi, you can sit down wherever; it doesn't make a difference to me."

Kyouya sat down across from her, with Tyler on his right. "So, Maaya, when are Jack and everyone coming down?" Tyler asked as he helped himself to some food. To Kyouya's surprise, it was a Japanese dish and they were eating with chopsticks. Maaya and Tyler were clearly at ease with eating like this, maybe they'd done it before, but Kyouya was secretly glad, it made things easier when they were familiar.

"Well, Rina is coming tomorrow, and so is Jack. Then Murtagh and Garrett the day after that, and then everyone is just coming sooner or later, I'm not sure about the exact dates. I'll have to ask Tamaki if he can make it too, I haven't talked to him in a while, and Sam and Cale'll be home in a few days," she replied calmly.

"Tamaki's coming over?" Kyouya, his interest piqued at the mention of his friend. He wondered if Tamaki had told Haruhi that he liked her yet.

"Hai. Rina is my sister, and Jack's my brother. Garrett is our step-brother, Murtagh's name is really Jack Murtagh, but we just call him by his last name, Sam is my uncle, and Cale is his five-year-old son. I'll have to give Tamaki a call, but I'll do that tomorrow when it's two in the morning over there," she replied, smirking evilly at the last sentence.

"Why at two in the morning? Won't it make more sense to call when it's like two in the afternoon?" Tyler asked curiously, clearly he knew as much about her reason as Kyouya did.

"For revenge; he called me and Rina at two in the morning once and the night before we'd gotten about four hours of sleep. He was screaming 'Maaya, Mommy's being mean!' and it hurt my ears so much. Since I had no idea who Mommy was, I asked and he launched into the entire story surrounding it. Then I told him that I was going to bed and if he called again at such an ungodly hour, I would break his legs through the phone," Maaya replied calmly before taking a bite of her food.

"Wow, you're scary when you don't get enough sleep," Tyler commented, leaning away from her in fear.

"Yeah I know, my nickname is the Shadow Queen because I glare at everyone if they wake me up insanely early. Tamaki woke me up at six in the morning when I was seven, so I glared at him and he ran out screaming 'Shadow Queen! Mother save me, the Shadow Queen's going to kill me!' After that, it just kinda stuck. But that's not the end of it; someone called again and said 'You realize you just sent milord into the corner of woe to grow mushrooms, right?' Then I sorta started swearing and got ticked off because it was two in the morning."

Kyouya shook his head, that would be Tamaki, not think before calling and then get upset because she told him off, and Hikaru and Kaoru were the only ones that called Tamaki 'milord' so that had to be them that called again. Even though they'd just met and she'd shouted at him, Kyouya liked Maaya, she was friendly, kind, knew how to handle Tamaki, understood him somewhat, and had a devious mind that delighted in plotting revenge schemes it appeared. "So, how much Japanese do you know?" he asked, wondering since she clearly knew some words, which wasn't surprising since her mother's side of the family was Japanese.

"All of it. My mother taught it to all of us since she was very big on us knowing our culture. Also, she taught us how to cook Japanese dishes so that we knew, although I didn't cook this since I didn't have the time. Rina, Jack, and me make sure that we don't forget our heritage, even if we've never been to Japan."

"You've never been to Japan?" Kyouya asked, puzzled, but then realization hit him as he remembered something Tamaki had said to him after he caught Kyouya looking at a picture of him, his father, his mother, Maaya, Rina, Jack, and their parents. _That's my aunt, Kira, and her husband Christian. Those are my cousins, Maaya, Katarina, and Jack. I haven't seen them since I left France, they'd like to visit, but Kira was exiled from the family after she divorced her husband she'd been arranged to marry. Also, my grandmother would force Maaya and Rina into arranged marriages, and Kira and Christian don't want that, since Kira's first husband was abusive and hit her in front of Jack when he was a year old. _ Maaya nodded with a frown, it clearly upset her about her grandmother and what she'd done to her mother. Just then the doorbell rang and Maaya got up saying, "Excuse me, I'll be right back," and left.

A few seconds later, Kyouya heard the door open and a cry of delight. He raised an eyebrow at Tyler as they listened to the voices coming through that were getting closer. "Rina's back early, and you'll meet her in a few seconds. Beware, she's a little over protective and strange, just a fair warning," he said, holding up his hands in a 'don't blame me' gesture. Kyouya turned around and saw Maaya and Rina walk in, laughing at something. Rina straightened up and said, "I'm Katarina, but everyone calls me Ree or Rina, so whichever's fine," while holding out her hand. Kyouya smiled and shook her hand, saying "I'm Kyouya Ohtori, it's nice to meet you." Rina nodded in return before sitting down and beginning to eat.

"So, what was that you two were laughing about?" Tyler asked.

"Oh, just something that happened last year. It's a long story, I'll let Iris or Ally tell you what happened," Rina said calmly, tucking her straight blonde hair behind her ears. As Maaya sat back down, Kyouya noticed that her hair had streaks of red in it that reflected off the lights hanging from the ceiling. She was pretty, with her dark, curly hair tossed behind her shoulders and her bright blue eyes alight with laughter behind her slim glasses, but Kyouya couldn't think like that. She was his best friend's cousin while he had no family, no home, and no connections. Tamaki might not mind, but she wouldn't be interested in him, but wait, it didn't matter did it? He wasn't going to get involved, and he certainly was not going to develop any feelings other than friendship with her and anyone else in her family. Kyouya mentally shook his head, he hadn't even been there a full day and he was already considering Maaya as more than a friend, this was too much.

"Ally and Iris are friends of ours that are coming to stay over for Christmas, along with about 20 other people. Also, they're sort of our step- foster-sisters or something. We're not entirely sure, it's rather confusing," Maaya explained to Kyouya, smiling softly.

"How are you not sure if they're your step-sisters or not?" Kyouya asked, his handing resting in his lap now that he was done with his meal. It had been very good, Kyouya wondered who their cook was, they were clearly very talented.

"Well, it started after our parents died. You see, Jack is our half-brother, we share the same mother. Our mother left Jack's father when he was a year old because John, his father, was an abusive and cheating scumbag. So she divorced him because she didn't want her son growing up with an abusive father, and a few years later met our father and married him," Maaya explained evenly.

"Our mother and father had met at a concert our father attended and fell in love when he saw her play a solo. They attended the same college, and intended to get married, but our grandmother forbid it and put our mother into a marriage for convenience. After the divorce, our mother ran into our father again, found out he wasn't married, and it just continued from there," Rina interrupted, as Kyouya noticed that her voice was a higher pitch than Maaya's, but the same tone quality.

"Then, Justin, Zach, and we were born and we lived as one big happy family until our parents' death. After that, I went to go live with Jack and John. Rina went to live with our Aunt Lisa and her family, whilst Justin and Zach disappeared off the edge of the world and we haven't seen them since. When Jack and I went to go live with him, John was married to a woman named Evelyn who'd just divorced her previous husband. She had a son a year older than us named Garrett, who she despised for some strange reason. Since John was my step-father, and he married Evelyn, that made her my step-mother and Garrett is our step-brother. A few months after Jack and I moved in, she adopted a boy named Avery Light. His mother left when he was four, and his father died when he was 10. He has two older twin sisters, Iris and Alexis, that were in different foster care homes a few miles away. His younger twin sister was in Maine, and his youngest brother, Kyprioth, lived a few blocks up the road. So, Avery is our step-brother and we're not sure if that makes Ally and Iris our step-sisters or not."

"But since now Avery and his siblings live with their Aunt a few hours north of here and go to the same school as we do while Garrett lives with his friend Duke and his family since Evelyn went crazy and tried to kill him in front of me, Avery, Kyprioth, Ally, and half the soccer team. Then a huge legal battle erupted between Evelyn and Duke's father, and Duke's father won. So now we're not sure what's going on with who we're legally related to or not and we've been friends with Iris Ally and their family for so long that they count us as family," Rina added.

"Wow, I forgot how long that story is," Tyler exclaimed in surprise, and Kyouya had to agree, it was a long story.

"Yup, but the story involving Ally and Twilight's family is longer," Maaya said, just as the maids came in and took their empty dishes and brought out fried ice cream for dessert.

"What do you mean?" Tyler asked after taking a bite of his ice cream.

"Iris or Adrian can tell you, but it's not our story to tell. Besides, we'd be sitting her for half an hour if I did tell you, and nobody even knows what's fact and what's fiction any more," she replied simply.

"Yeah, considering it started about 700 years ago, in the beginning of the Medeival Era," Rina added. After that they just ate in silence, as Kyouya considered looking it up to see if there were any hisstorical records of it. But first he'd have to set up an internet connection, which he'd need a phone jack for. Ah well, he'd just have to ask Jien or one of them for help, even if it was something he didn't enjoy.

"Oh, Kyouya I noticed your laptop sitting on the desk in your room, do you need help setting up an internet connection?" Maaya suddenly asked, as if she'd read his mind.

"Yes, that would be very helpful indeed," he replied, smiling softly at her.

"O.K., I'll help you with it tomorrow after I set up mine and Rina's." Kyouya nodded in reply before they all left and went up to their rooms. Kyouya still needed to unpack, and he knew Maaya would help her sister. He walked to his room, and started to unpack, placing his clothes in the drawer and hanging up the few nice suits he'd brought for interviews for a job if he needed to get one, but first he had to get into a school and finish his education. He still had a year to go in Japan, but wasn't sure how the school system worked over here in England. With a sigh, Kyouya sat down and started up his laptop so that he could make sure it wasn't being traced and reorganized his files, deleting the ones he didn't need. He wasn't tired anymore, it was early back home so he got up and randomly pulled a book off the shelf on the wall to the left of his bed and started to read.


	3. Chapter 3

Kyouya woke up to find that he'd fallen asleep reading with his glasses still on and the book on his chest. He yawned and sat up, stretching, just as a chord of music reached his ears. He quirked an eyebrow, wondering where it was coming from. As the music reached his ears, he could pick out a violin underneath the bright piano melody. Getting dressed quickly, Kyouya walked out of his room and found he could hear it more clearly and followed the sound to the end of the hallway, where a door was ajar. He immediately recalled that Maaya had told Tyler and him the first door on the left was a music room and any instrument, except the ones that were her mother's, were fair game. Curious as to who was playing such a intricate and complex piece, he stepped inside to find Rina sitting at the piano and Maaya standing next to her, eyes focused on the music in front of her, a look of pure concentration on her face as she whipped the bow across the violin's strings to produce a beautiful note. Any other man would have fallen in love with her on the spot, but Kyouya was not any man, he protected himself behind far too many layers to fall in love with a girl he'd just met.

Kyouya leaned against the door frame and marveled at how gifted Maaya clearly was. He couldn't see Rina's face since her back was turned to him, but Maaya was undoubtedly enjoying herself as she played, and it was amazing to see someone play with such skill. His mother had made him take violin lessons when he was younger before she died when he was seven, and his father had tolerated it, but after her death, Yoshio had banned it, saying he didn't want some sissy good-for-nothing no account musician for a son. Kyouya had stopped playing, but then Fuyumi had forced him to continue in secret, saying it was what their mother would have wanted. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was already one p.m., which surprised him; he'd figured he'd have slept longer considering the time change.

Just then, Maaya looked up and noticed him standing there. She stopped playing and smiled at him as Rina turned around, puzzled as to why her sister had suddenly stopped playing. Her eyes widened in understanding when she saw Kyouya. Even though she and Maaya were twins, they looked quite different, Rina had blonde straight hair while Maaya's was dark brown and wavy, and Rina didn't wear glasses. It was easy to tell them apart, Maaya seemed more composed and withdrawn than Rina, it seemed. She was also far more perceptive, he could tell that just by looking in her eyes. Whenever she looked at him, her gaze seemed to pierce right through him, as if she could see past all the fake layers and the walls to the heart underneath that he didn't want anyone to see.

"Hi," Maaya said, lifting her chin off her violin and setting the instrument down on the unopened grand piano.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I just heard the music and wondered who was playing," Kyouya said, pushing his glasses up so that they were no longer sliding down his face.

"No, it's fine, we don't mind. Sorry if we woke you, Maaya started practicing this morning so I decided to join her," Rina replied, smiling warmly, her face full of happiness. "Do you play an instrument, Kyouya? You could join us if you want; Maaya's always looking for another musician to practice with, to get new insight on some music she's writing." At this Maaya's eyes glanced down in an embarrassed manner, it was a very subtle movement that most people would have missed, but this was Kyouya and for some strange reason unbeknownst to him, he found himself observing her quite often.

"You write music?" Kyouya asked, surprised to find that such a quiet and reserved girl would write music, but maybe that was the way she let out her emotions.

"A little, Rina writes more than I do. I'm more of a painter sketch-artist myself. I love to play music, but I just don't have the right mindset to write good music out," Maaya said calmly, she clearly didn't care if he judged her or not just because she preferred painting while her sister preferred writing music. As he talked to them as Maaya put her violin away, Kyouya found himself actually enjoying himself and maybe even smiling just a little. He'd declined the offer to play with them, but Maaya had figured out that he played the violin, saying that it was the way he'd looked at hers when she'd put it away. Kyouya was surprised when he heard this, he usually _never_ let any of his feelings show, but he was longing for the violin that Fuyumi had bought him when he finished middle school, top of the class. The violin had been beautiful, a top-of-the-line German violin that was made circa the 1950s and played like a dream. It was strange, he'd only been there a day and it already felt more like home than his house ever had. He found out that Maaya preferred string instruments, but played the trumpet in the school band, while Rina preferred the piano and flute. Also, Rina preferred writing music and letting that calm her down, but Maaya preferred to paint and draw.

"Hmmm, I wonder where Tyler is, I haven't seen him since this morning," Maaya mused as they walked out of the music room.

"No clue, but I'm sure he's around somewhere," Rina replied before going into her room and shutting the door.

"So, Kyouya, you said you needed help getting connected to the internet?" Maaya asked as she walked with Kyouya to his room. He nodded in reply and opened the door to let her in. She walked in and sat down at the desk with his pineapple laptop on it. Without commenting on the brand or anything, she opened and got started. "O.K., I need to delete all the old networks and hook your computer up to Sam's, so it'll only take a few minutes. I'll be right back, I need to grab something from my room," and with that, she jumped up and left the room. Kyouya sat down on his bed and Maaya came dashing back in with something in her hand.

"What's that?"

"Just a CD I need to install some software onto your computer so that you can use Sam's wireless network. You need the username and password to use it, so I'll have to enter that. This way nobody else can get on our network or anything, and when Ariya comes over with her family I'll have her give you a permanent and untraceable internet network so that you don't have to worry about anyone tracking you," she explained as she uploaded the CD and started typing; within five minutes she ejected the CD and put it back in the holder she had. "There you go, now you can use the internet whenever you want."

"Thanks."

"No problem," she replied with a smile before walking to the door, "Oh, and by the way, did you want anything to eat? We already had lunch, but one of the maids could bring you something up, or I could take you to the kitchen and you could eat it there if you preferred."

"I'll eat in the kitchen, it'll help if I know where everything is," Kyouya replied, shutting his laptop as he did so. Maaya nodded with a smile in response and waited patiently as he put the book he'd been reading away. She noticed the title and her eyes widened in surprise.

"What?" He asked, one eyebrow quirked in confusion.

"That book, _Wuthering Heights_by Emily Bronte, is my favorite, and I wouldn't expect a guy to enjoy it. Most people think that it's too heavy, and that the characters are horrid, but I love it," she replied.

"Oh, I just grabbed it off the shelf, I don't know a thing about it," he said, as she led him down the hallway to the stairs.

"It's a story about two people in love named Catherine and Heathcliff who are awful to each other, so their cruelty and snobbishness separate them, but they still love each other, despite their bad qualities.

"Hmmmm, it doesn't sound like something I would normally read, more like something Tamaki would enjoy, but it's well written. I think I'll give it a try," he said quietly as they walked through a living room, past a dining room to a wide corridor that ended in a set of huge, metal double doors. She opened them and he walked into an absolutely enormous kitchen. Everything was either made of stainless steel or dark wood, and was all top of the line. Three chefs were bustling around, no doubt getting the prep work done for dinner. There were two people washing the ever-growing pile of dishes, one to wash them and the other to rinse, bleach, and then put them on the drying rack. The kitchen was very impressive and the chefs clearly knew what they were doing and had a very organized system, it was fascinating to watch. He noticed the island counter in the middle that had cans and jarred spices stacked on the shelves underneath and it was surrounded by tall stools on each side. Kyouya guessed that it was for the chefs to each lunch or if someone wanted a snack in the kitchen, they could eat there.

"You should, and you're right, Tamaki would enjoy it, even though he'd freak during certain parts. Speaking of which, I need to call him and ask him if he could come over for Christmas. We haven't spent a Christmas with him since before my mother died," she said with a sigh as they sat down at the counter and waited for one of the chefs to bring over something to eat.

"Why not, couldn't you call him?" Kyouya asked as a chef walked over and asked what they would like.

"Well, Miss Maaya, fancy seeing you here only a half hour after you ate," he said, his voice was a mockingly stern one as his eyes twinkled with laughter.

Maaya smiled in response, "Well, I'm a growing girl Ian, I need my energy," she said in reply with a laughing smile on her face.

Ian smiled in return and turned to Kyouya, "What would you like for lunch, good sir?"

"Ummmm, whatever you have would be fine," Kyouya replied, unsure of what they had or what was to be expected to eat, his father didn't particularly like Western style food so they rarely ate anything like that for lunch.

Ian looked at Maaya for confirmation and she replied, "That's fine, he's not used to English food so make whatever you'd like Ian, I trust you." He nodded and walked away to figure out what to make for the Japanese guest that would be staying with them indefinitely. "Don't worry," she said to Kyouya, "Ian makes great food, and has been working for Sam since forever," she said with a reassuring smile. He looked around at the kitchen, and watched the chefs, still impressed by the way they worked together and seemed to know what the other was thinking; it was clear that it had taken years to hone this way of working together. As he watched, Kyouya thought of the conversation he'd had with Maaya and Rina in the music room. He'd found out that their mother, who'd been one of the best violinist/pianists in all of Japan. After she married John, she'd been forced to give it up and spent her time taking care of her sons and playing for them. After Rina and Maaya had been old enough to be left alone, she'd started teaching music at a college not far from where they lived. She taught all of them how to play the violin, viola, or cello and any other instrument they wanted to learn. The only ones that didn't want to learn were Justin and Zach, they just didn't seem to want to be part of the family, Maaya had said.

Ian soon came over with a bowl of soup and a basket of bread. He placed the soup in front of Kyouya and put the bread in the center of the table. "My world famous potato leek soup, enjoy. Maaya do you want some hot chocolate or tea?"

"Yeah, some green tea would be great, Ian, thanks," she replied with a smile as Ian nodded and went off to fulfill her request. "That soup is actually really good, it's one of my favorites." Kyouya shrugged in response and started eating. Maaya was right it _was_ really good, there were so many flavors, and all of them mixed together, but still stayed separate. Kyouya closed his eyes, savoring the soup as it ran down his throat. When he opened his eyes he noticed that Maaya was smiling a lopsided smile that made her look very cute. Wait, what was he thinking?! He couldn't call his best friend's cousin cute, Tamaki would flay him alive if he knew Kyouya was thinking that.

"What?" he asked when he realized she was staring at him.

"So I take it you like the soup?" she asked, her head resting on her folded hands which were propped up by her elbows. He nodded in response and continued eating the deliciously delightful soup.

"So, why are you really staying with us? I know you said that you don't get along with your father, but neither does my friend Caleb and he's sticking it out, so it has to be more than that. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you don't seem like the type of person to just leave his home and friends just because he's having trouble with his father," she asked, picking pieces off a roll and them slowly.

Kyouya sighed, she really had him all figured out. It was incredible to believe how perceptive this girl was, if he didn't know better, Kyouya would have thought she was psychic. "You're right, I didn't leave just because I don't like my father, though he does have a lot to do with it. Well, since you know all about the Host Club, then I assume you know about Haruhi Fujioka and how Tamaki doesn't realize that he likes her yet." Maaya nodded and gestured for him to continue as she picked up another piece of bread. Ian then brought over her tea, and walked away, almost as if he knew that they were having a private discussion. "My father wants me to get engaged to Haruhi. I declined, and he threatened to make it so I wouldn't get a cent of my inheritance. It didn't make much of a difference to me of who I married, but Tamaki's my best friend and I want to give him a chance to tell Haruhi how he feels. I also know that Haruhi wouldn't want to marry me, and have no interest in forcing my friend to marry someone she doesn't want to. So, I left and told Tamaki my father had banned me from the Host Club, so he told me I could live with his uncle for a while until my father came to his senses or forgot about me, depending on which one happened first."

"Wow, and I thought that Caleb's father was bad," she said with a shake of her head in wonderment at how someone could be so cruel to their own son. "My friend Caleb is gay, and his father hates gay people, if he finds out before we finish high school, he'll kick Caleb out of the house, and if he finds out during college, he'll cut off his tuition. He's crazy, I mean Caleb's mom, brother, and sister are fine with it, but his dad can't stand the," she continued, answering Kyouya's unasked question. Kyouya whistled, that was pretty bad, but his father wasn't a picnic either. He finished the rest of his soup, pondering what he was going to do about school. He also needed to contact Tamaki and tell him he was alright and had had a safe flight before Tamaki went ballistic.

"Do you know Tamaki's cell phone number?" she asked suddenly as they walked out of the kitchen once Kyouya had finished his soup. She was giving him a tour of the house, and said that Tyler was probably wandering around on his own, since he lacked too much common sense to ask someone.

"Yes, I do. Why, do you need to call him?" he asked as she led him through several corridors to all the empty rooms and such.

"Yes, I know his house number, but I would prefer not to call in case the wretch is the there. It's twenty till two here so it should be around nine o'clock there. I think I'll wait a while so that I can get my revenge," she said, glancing at her watch as she figured out the difference in her head.

Kyouya shook his head with a smile , she was very conniving and determined to get revenge for Tamaki's lapse in thought. "I need to tell him that I arrived here safely since I forgot to do it yesterday and he'll panic if I don't," he explained calmly.

"You forgot! Wow, I pity you," she gasped, her eyes widening in surprise. "You should call him, here use my phone. He'll call the entire Japanese army and bring them down on my house." She handed him a black razor phone after turning it on. He flipped it open and noticed that the screen was a picture of her, Rina, Tyler, and bunch of other people he didn't recognize. He typed in Tamaki's cell phone number, and waited for him to answer. After five rings Tamaki picked up and said, "Moshi moshi, this is Tamaki."

"Hi Tamaki, it's Kyouya," he spoke in Japanese since he was most familiar with it, but decided to switch to French in case anyone was listening.

"Kyouya! Mon ami! Yahoo! I'm so glad that you're o.k.!! But why didn't you call me, you should have called me to tell you that you were alright, I was worried sick when you didn't call!" he screamed, changing from joy to disappointment and concern in a second, causing Kyouya to wince at the volume of his voice and roll his eyes as Tamaki rambled and panicked.

"I'm sorry; I was too tired from jet lag to call. I'm fine, Tamaki, just calmed down. There's nothing wrong, so just calmed down," Kyouya sighed, as he tried to calm down his psychotic friend. "Help" he mouthed to Maaya as Tamaki refused to be consoled, and was now screaming that Kyouya must be very angry with him to not have called as she tried to hold in her laughter at Kyouya's attempts to calm down her cousin whom she could hear through the phone.

"Well, if you were alright then why didn't you call?! Kyouya-kun, are you mad at me? Is that it, did I do something to upset you?! If so, please forgive me!"Tamaki whined, sobbing in distress.

She held out her hand for the phone and he gladly handed it over. "Tamaki? This is Maaya, your cousin," she said, clearly bracing herself for him to start screaming in joy. He was about twenty times louder than when Kyouya had called; he could hear Tamaki perfectly even though he was no longer on the phone. She jumped and held the phone at arm's length away from her ear.

"YAHOO! MON NIECE! WEEEEEEE! YAHOO!" it was quite frightening listening to him scream in delight. (A/N: For those of you who don't know French, and I had to look this up, but niece is actually the same in English and French, but is pronounced differently.)

"Yeah, Tamaki, I'm glad to talk to you too, but wait. Why did you just call me your niece?! I'm your cousin not your niece!"

"But…but…!" Tamaki stammered before collecting himself. Kyouya listened to Tamaki explain about his "family" and everything as Maaya listened, rolling her eyes and sighing in exasperation quite often. It took a while, but she managed to explain why Kyouya didn't call to tell him he was okay, and that no, Tamaki wasn't mad at him. She also explained how she, Rina, and Jack were staying with Sam and why they'd left America. Finally, she asked him if he could come over for Christmas and he went ballistic with ecstasy and how he'd bring the entire host club along too. _Great, this means that I'll have to order a passport for Haruhi, which'll be difficult to accomplish from over here. Or maybe I should just call Hunny-senpai and ask him, he and Mori are reliable,_ Kyouya thought to himself as listened. At last, she managed to end the conversation and hung up the phone.

"Man, this is why I did not want to call him when he was awake, he's not as annoying when he's tired and doesn't talk nearly as much," Maaya sighed, leaning against the wall of the hallway. "Well, now all I have to do is tell Sam, or maybe I won't; that would be a good surprise for him. Yes, I think I'll surprise Sam and not tell him."

"You hold a lot of grudges don't you?" he commented as they continued wandering the hallways and corridors, not really minding where they were going.

"I guess, I never really thought about it. The worst grudges I hold are against people that harm my family or my friends, such as Jared and Joel."

"What did they do?" he asked, genuinely curious for once in his life and not just ask to make it seem like he was interested. As Kyouya thought about it, he discovered that what he most liked about this house and the people in it was that he never had to pretend to like something just because they did. He was free to hate something they loved, or vice versa, and they wouldn't get mad at him for it. It was quite a relief to not have to worry about keeping up appearances or worrying that something he might say could offend someone.

"Well my friend Ally dated him for a while when we stilled lived in Pennsylvania. She's two years older than me, so I was in eighth grade and she was in tenth. Jared wanted their relationship to go farther and Ally wasn't ready, so he slept with another girl named Vicky something. Ally found out and dumped him, and we came up with a lot of ways to get back at him. Joel dated my friend Devon for eight months this year, and we found out that for the last four months of their relationship, he was dating some other girl named Tammy. So our friend Connor punched Joel so hard he had a black eye for a month, Bria cursed him, and Tori kicked him upside the head. That was all in the middle of a café right next to our school because everyone saw Joel kissing Tammy," she explained calmly. Kyouya looked at her in surprise, unable to fathom why she would tell him something that was none of his business. Maybe it was to show him that she trusted him, or maybe she just figured that she didn't have a good enough reason not to tell him.

"Anyway, do you want to see some certain room or something, or do you just want to continue wandering around?" she asked, breaking through Kyouya's thoughts.

He shrugged in reply, "It doesn't really matter to me, I don't have much to do here."

"Then I guess I could make some popcorn and we could watch a movie. I should probably find Rina and Tyler to see where they got to," she said, tapping her finger against her cheek as she pondered where her sister and friend could have gotten to.

"Fine with me," he answered, Kyouya wasn't in the mood to hide out in his room with his laptop or play the violin.

"O.K., then it's settled. I just need to find my sister, I hope she didn't show Tyler my art room, if she did, I'll kill her," she said as she started walking back down the hall as Kyouya followed.

"Art room?"

"It's the room that I do all my paintings in, and I don't like anyone going in it without my permission. I have a mural spanning two walls and most of the third one that I've been working on since seventh grade. Even though I was staying with John, and Ree was staying with our Aunt Lisa, we came down to stay with Sam for a few weeks during Christmas, Spring Break, and long weekends, so I started my own painting room."

"Interesting," Kyouya replied, trying to sound indifferent, but inside he was full of surprise, Maaya was completely different from Tamaki, and seemed to have more in common with himself than her cousin. She was his total opposite, she was less open, not as emotional, and far more cynical than Tamaki could ever be. Maaya seemed to let her emotions out in her music and art, just like Kyouya did after he had built his walls between his heart and the world.

They walked around the house, and eventually found Rina and Tyler in the music room as Rina showed Tyler Maaya's silver trumpet that she didn't take to school and all of their other instruments. They agreed to watching a movie when Maaya asked and followed her downstairs to a room with a huge TV, stereo, couches, that had a doorway open to a mini-kitchenette type room. It had an oven, stove, cupboards and cabinets, and a small fridge that held a few snack foods and drinks. Maaya and Rina took some corn kettles out of a cabinet over the microwave and put them into a pot to cook them the old-fashioned way. The two girls didn't call for maids or ask for help, it seemed as if they'd done this a million times before and preferred to do it themselves. While the popcorn was being cooked, they looked for some movies and decided on one entitled 10 Things I Hate About You, which Kyouya had never heard of. Soon, the popcorn was ready, everyone was settled in and they all started to watch the movie.


	4. Chapter 4

Once the movie was over Kyouya noticed it was getting dark outside. The clock on the wall said that it was ten after five. He noticed Maaya was looking outside the windows as if searching for someone. "Maaya, what's wrong?" Rina asked, going over to join her sister, puzzlement clear on her face. Kyouya noticed another difference between the sisters, Maaya only showed her emotions through subtle hints and her eyes, while Rina's were easy to see on her face.

"Nothing, I was just wondering when Jien and Jack were coming home. If one of them doesn't call in an hour, I'll call Jack cell phone to see if his plane was delayed or something," she answered, turning away from the window and letting the blinds fall back into place. Her eyes were carefully blank to hide her worry, but Kyouya could still read it, and as he looked at Rina, so could she.

"Oh, come on sis, you're not worried about them are you? They'll be fine, I mean it _is_ a seven hour drive one way. Not to mention parking, getting their luggage, loading the car, and stopping for gas and things on the way," Rina said, putting her arm around Maaya's shoulder comfortingly. "I'm sure their fine, and just running a little behind schedule, don't worry about it."

"I know, but it's getting really bad out there, you can barely see through all the freezing rain," Maaya replied, shrugging off her sister's arm and glancing back at the window before sitting back down on the couch.

"Seriously? Wow, I didn't even pay attention to the weather, I had no idea what was going on outside today. But it is only December eighth, so freezing rain is to be expected before it gets any colder. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas again this year," Tyler said, sitting up in surprise at hearing what the weather was.

"Very smooth, Tyler, just be totally oblivious to what is going on around you," Maaya said teasingly and with gentle sarcasm.

"Well I can't help it, I'm just not very observant. Anyway, what's for dinner, since it's already after five o'clock," Tyler asked, his dark eyebrows rose with curiosity so that they almost disappeared under his honey blonde curly bangs.

"Baka, we just had a bunch of snacks, how can you still be hungry?" Maaya exclaimed, smacking him upside the head, "I didn't tell the cooks to make anything for dinner, but there's some left over soup in the fridge from a few days ago if you want that. Or Rina and I could cook something up for you like tuna steak or whatever's in the fridge."

"The tuna steak sounds fine, but wait. When did you guys learn to cook?" Tyler asked sitting up in surprise.

"Well, our mother started teaching us when we were six I think, right Ree?" Maaya asked, tapping her cheek with her finger as she thought, as Ree nodded in agreement.

"Oh, ok then. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You never asked," Rina replied, as she and Maaya led Tyler and Kyouya down to the kitchen. Tyler shook his head. Kyouya had watched the entire scenario, it seemed that they'd forgotten about him for a little bit. Normally that would have angered him, but the scene was actually a bit amusing.

Once they reached the huge kitchen that had been filled with cooks a few hours earlier was empty, and it would have been eerie if Kyouya hadn't been used to hanging out in empty kitchens back home. As he watched Maaya and Rina pull out some tuna, a pan to sear it in, a metal bowl, and tons of ingredients that he assumed were for the marinade. In a few minutes, they had tuna covered in sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, green onions, a bit of cooking sherry, and lime juice. It was amazing to watch them work together, they didn't even need to tell each other what they needed, they just knew, it was incredible to see two people so in sync with each other. The tuna was put in the fridge to marinade for an hour while Maaya and Rina got out plates, silverware, glasses, and napkins. "There, it may not be an extravagant and fancy dinner, but it's food," Maaya said, just as they heard a furious pounding at the door. Maaya and Rina leaped up from their seats, "Jack's home!" they cried and ran out the door at an unbelievable pace.

Tyler just shook his head and followed, as did Kyouya. They walked out the door to the kitchen and through a mess of hallways before reaching the double oak doors through which they'd first entered the house. Jien and a man about the age of twenty-two with close cropped black hair, a strong jaw line, blue eyes, and a strong, stocky build with a height of about six foot. They were soaking wet from the rain, and the stranger whom Kyouya assumed was Jack was holding a dripping bag and hat in his hands. He hung up his black trench coat on the coat rack to the right of the door before Maaya and Rina jumped to hug him without a word. It was clear that they loved their brother very much and missed him terribly when he was away at college and them at boarding school. They pulled away as Jien slipped pass silently, probably to find towels and put the rest of Jacks luggage away in his room. "It's good to see you, Jack." Rina said.

"Oh right. Jack, this is Kyouya Ohtori, a Tamaki's friend, and Kyouya this is our older brother, Jack," Maaya explained.

"Hi, nice to meet you," Jack said with a smile, holding out his hand.

Kyouya shook it replying, "Likewise," before stepping back as Jack went up the stairs to the left, his room on the west wing of the house, carrying his duffel bag and guitar case with him.

"Where's he going?" Tyler asked.

"To unpack, get dry, and either play his guitar, talk to a friend on the computer, or call his girlfriend we know absolutely nothing about," Rina replied, leading the way back into the kitchen where they all sat down to talk while the tuna marinated.

"So who's his girlfriend?" Tyler asked as they sat down.

"No clue, he won't say a thing about her. We'll have to force it out of him if he doesn't tell us her name soon. If he doesn't want to tell us a lot fine, but u can't tell us that you have a girlfriend and not even say her name!" Maaya said, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"How are you going to force it out of him, and why won't he tell you anything about her?" Kyouya asked.

"No clue, and we could just tell Sam that he has a girlfriend, then he'll have to spill _everything_." Rina suggested calmly.

"No way! Jack would kill us, if we did that! Or rather, he'd kill you, 'cause I'm not getting involved in this," Maaya exclaimed, choking on her water.

"Why would telling Sam make Jack kill you?" Tyler asked, bewildered since he'd never met Sam.

"You two haven't met our Uncle Sam, so you don't know what he's like. The best way I can describe him is he's similar to Tamaki and my father at the same time. He's serious and normal about most things, but when it comes to our love lives, he turns all happy and acts just like Tamaki, it's rather unnerving," Maaya explained as Rina nodded in agreement.

"Ok then," Tyler replied, looking bewildered at the thought of someone being like Maaya and Rina's father and cousin he'd never met at the same time. Suddenly a loud beeping went off from around the stove, causing Maaya to jump off her stool and turn it off.

"Well it's been about an hour, so I think we can cook the tuna now," she said, pulling the tuna out of the fridge and turning on the stove.

"Yeah, I'll go and get Jack," Rina replied, dashing off to tell her brother dinner would be ready.

While Rina went to go get their brother, Maaya put a pan on the stove and turning the heat to medium. Then she pulled out a spatula and waited for the pan to heat up before tossing the tuna onto it and pouring some of the marinade on too. The sounds and smells of tuna searing filled the room as Rina and Jack entered the room a few minutes later.

"Hey guys," Jack said, before sitting down in a seat at the end of the table next to Kyouya.

"Hey Jack," Maaya and Tyler said as Kyouya just nodded. Soon the tuna was ready with a salad that had apparently been done by the cooks, along with some Italian bread and jalapeño butter. Maaya brought the tuna over on a huge plate as Rina set down the salad, bread, and butter. They all started eating, and to Kyouya's surprise the food was delicious. Maaya and Rina clearly knew what they were doing when it came to cooking. The butter was slightly spicy, but not too much, the bread was soft and warm, but the ahi tuna was definitely the best. The ginger and lime gave it phenomenal flavor that was too much. Once everyone had finished eating, Maaya and Rina cleaned up without asking anyone for help and rinsed the dishes off before putting them in the dish washer next to it. Afterwards, they brought some mint ice cream from the freezer which they scooped into five bowls and set on the table for everyone.

To Kyouya Rina said, "If you don't like mint, too bad, because you have to eat at least three bites, that's our rule of thumb."

"I've had mint ice cream before, it's actually my favorite," Kyouya replied, making Maaya snort with laughter at her sister's ignorance and for Jack and Tyler to chuckle.

"Very smooth, Rina," Maaya said mockingly at her sister as she ate her ice cream. Jack shook his head as Tyler rolled his eyes, it was clear that this happened often.

"I…bu….well on you!" Rina replied sticking her tongue out at her sister after she said 'well'.

"Wow, that hurt so much, Rina, I think I'm gonna cry," Maaya retorted sarcastically, placing her hand over her heart and making it look like she was going to cry, but was clearly mocking her sister. Tyler and Jack laughed, and even Kyouya found himself smirking at Rina's annoyance at being out spoken by her sister.

"Humph!" she replied, and crossed her arms, raising her head so that she was looking away from them, "Fine, just fine!" That just caused Maaya and Jack to snort with laughter as Tyler laughed, and Kyouya chuckled.

"Alright, that's enough Maaya, Rina," Jack said, even though he was smiling with amusement at the event.

"Don't worry, Kyouya, this happens all the time, she'll get over it in a few minutes," Tyler said as Rina dumped her empty bowl in the sink and walked haughtily away.

"I think, I'm going to go do some painting, I haven't done it in forever, excuse me. Jack, it's your job to do the dishes," Maaya said and rinsed her bowl out before placing it gently next to the sink and walking out of the room.

"Alright," Jack replied before she left and took everyone's bowl since they were all done with their ice cream. "So, Kyouya, I hear you plan on staying with Sam for quite a while, have you thought about what you're going to do about school?" Jack asked as he turned on the water and waited it to heat up before plugging the drain and adding in some dish soap.

"Not really, I'm not sure if it would be all right for me to stay that long," Kyouya replied, wondering the same thing himself. Tyler excused himself from the table to go and read his giant 1,500 page book.

"Ah, well Sam and the rest of us don't mind how long you stay with us, as long as you don't mind Katelyn, Cale's nanny, and dealing with a newborn baby in a few months. She's seven months pregnant and visiting some family up north while Sam and Cale are in New York, but if you attend Maaya and Rina's boarding school you wouldn't have to deal with that until spring break," Jack said as he finished the few dishes and rinsed them before putting them on the rack to dry.

"If Cale has a nanny, then what happened to his mother?" Kyouya asked with interest as Jack sat back down to talk to him.

"She died in a train accident when Cale was eight months old, it nearly destroyed Sam. He started drinking heavily so my father went down to talk to him and put him in the AA and helped him get back on his feet. He hired Katelyn Schwarz to watch Cale and act as a sort of stand in so he wouldn't grow up without some sort of motherly figure in his life. She helped him out and got Sam to start going to church and he's been getting a lot better, but that was a while ago, Cale is about seven now," Jack explained, going into perhaps a bit more detail than necessary. With a sigh at the sad memory, Jack stood up to leave, "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish unpacking before I go to sleep."

Kyouya nodded to show it was all right; he sat there for a while and pondered everything that had happened to this family. Jack and a horrible man for a father, his mother was gone, Maaya and Rina had watched their father slowly get sick and die from a disease he thought he beaten after going into remission, and then they'd been split up from each other. And yet they continued to look on the bright side of life and didn't hold any grudges against each other and forgave each other easily because they knew life was way too short to waste it holding pointless grudges. It was interesting to live with a family that had lost so much, and yet continued to move on and live their lives without fear. But that wasn't true, Maaya was afraid, he could see that she cherished every moment with her family because she was afraid that it just might be the last, Kyouya had seen it in her eyes once.

He sat there what seemed a long time before getting up and going to his room to read the book that Maaya said she loved so much, he wasn't very far, just at the part where Heathcliff had left and didn't return after Catherine had said "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff…" Or maybe he'd get on his computer and email Mori about getting Haruhi a passport so she could come to England, no doubt Hikaru and Kaoru would pay for the trip, since Mori wouldn't forget. With that last thought, Kyouya left the kitchen and went up the stairs and around the corner to his room, pausing to listen at the classical music coming ever so faintly from Maaya's art room that she forbid anyone from going into without her permission. He considered going in to see what she was working on, but decided against it, it would be better to ask to see it later when she trusted him more.


	5. Chapter 5

A couple weeks past and people continually arrived, and to the relief of Jien, they only had to ride trains so it was just a twenty minute drive to the station. Jack, however, hadn't been able to get a train until the day _after_ he arrived in the town about three hours away, so Jien had driven the three hours to pick him up so he wouldn't have to spend the night in a cheap hotel or train station. Now the house was full of people, the list now extended to: Maaya and Rina's almost step-siblings Iris, Alexis, Avery, Electra, Kyprioth, then Electra's boyfriend Alec who's older sister, Alai, was married to Val and they had Devon, who was Maaya and Ree's age, Val had younger siblings around Kyouya's age named Raven, the twins Chystal and Ariya, and Caleb and Maris, also twins. Then Alec had another younger sister named Aranel who was dating Aaron, who was brothers in all but blood as they said, with Chris, who was dating Ariya. Not to mention, the Knights, Adrian and Twilight (yes that's his real name) and their family had been best friends with the Lights (Ally's family if anyone forgot) for generations. Also, Avery was dating Elizabeth or Elly as everyone called her, who's cousin, Alex, was dating Chystal. Lastly, Ally and Iris's aunt Aariyon (Air-ee-on), her son Cole, her fiancée, Aclarion (A-clare-ee-on), and his cousin Avondale. To specify, mostly everyone except the adults were from 16-18, and Devon had a seven-year-old brother Gabriel, and twin four-year-old, red-headed devils named Fred and George, while Cale was only five and Cole was the same age as Gabriel, actually they were born at the exact same time on the same day, down to the second and had been best friends since birth.

Sam and Cale arrived on Kyouya's fourth full day with them, and Maaya had been right when describing him. He was completely normal and what he expected from everyone's descriptions, but then he'd seen Maaya sitting next to Tyler and then all hell broke loose. Kyouya, Rina, Maaya, Tyler , and Jack were all sitting in a room filled with couches and a coffee table talking about different things and sharing funny memories from recent years, such as when Iris had shoved Adrian into the lake during a game of tag. There was a roaring fire in the fire place at the end of the room next to the window to block out the freezing cold of winter. The blizzard that had been mentioned a few days ago had finally arrived and it was coming down at a steady pace. Maaya was sitting on the floor leaning against the couch with her legs stretched out, just as Jack and Tyler were, as he and Rina sat on the opposing couch. Sam and Cale burst surprisingly into the room and Cale ran over to Maaya and Jack and jumped on them before bouncing up and running to hug Rina, his curly, fair hair a blur as he ran. Sam leaned against the doorway before hugging everyone, and when Kyouya had offered his hand, Sam had ignored it and grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug. That's when he noticed that Tyler was sitting next to Maaya and their hands were daringly close, and he squealed with joy before hugging them at the same time and screaming, "I'm going to have grand-kids one day!" in a painfully delighted voice.

Maaya and Tyler jumped back hurriedly exclaiming, "Whoa! wait, what!? "

"No, no, no," Tyler explained, holding up his hands and shaking his head, " Sorry, but I'm gay, we're just friends," as Maaya and Rina nodded fervently, and Maaya pressed herself as far away from her crazed uncle as possible.

"Oh, well that's disappointing. And here I was so hoping that Maaya would finally have a boyfriend," Sam said with a sigh, sitting back on his heels, disappointed that Tyler was gay and into guys, not girls. "I'll just have to keep on searching for the perfect guy then. Well I should get to work, could you help me watch Cale until Katelyn comes?" Everyone nodded in reply as Cale hugged closed to Rina's waist, clearly not wanting to let go.

He left the room just almost as quickly as he'd entered. Maaya breathed a sigh of relief as Cale left Rina's side and sat down between her and Jack, leaning his head on her lap. She shook her head with a smile as Cale curled up and closed his eyes, already beginning to sleep as Maaya gently stroked his hair with her hand. "So, back to the conversation _before_ our slightly deranged uncle interrupted," Maaya said, trying to get rid of the awkward silence that had fallen upon the room after Sam's departure.

"What were we talking about anyway?" Rina asked, a little too loudly, because Cale fidgeted in his sleep and Maaya glared at her, putting her finger to her lips to signal her sister to be quiet. Jack then took Cale off her lap and placed him smoothly and gently without a noise onto the couch, a pillow supporting his head. Maaya stood up and grabbed a blanket from the cupboard under the picture table next the couch he was sitting on and put it over her cousin.

"No idea, but there's one thing I want to know; Tyler, why are you here? I don't mind or anything, but why aren't you spending Christmas with your mother and sister?" Jack asked in a soft voice. Maaya then made the motion that they should move to the other room which had a table and chairs so that they didn't have to whisper as much and could still watch Cale. Everyone nodded in agreement and walked into the other room to let Cale sleep in peace, but still watch him as Sam had asked.

"Well, so that Kyouya understands I'll start at the very beginning, even though you guys know what happened since you were at the funeral. What happened is that when I was in sixth grade, so this was a year after their parents died, my dad died from cancer. After that my mom got really depressed, she didn't go totally off the deep end, but it got pretty bad. Then she wasn't sure if she should start dating again after a year because she was afraid of how it would affect me and my older sister Karen and if it would be disrespectful to my dad or not. Earlier this year she started dating a guy she met at work and he invited her to spend the month in Paris with him. My mom wasn't sure what to do about me since Karen is seven years older than me and a flight attendant so she's gone. She didn't want to leave me alone for a month, especially around Christmas, but she's really happy with this guy, so I asked Maaya and Rina if I could stay and they said it was no problem and my mom doesn't mind, so here I am," Tyler explained.

"Oh, that makes sense," Jack said, turning around for a second to make sure that Cale was still slumbering away.

"So how is Karen, we haven't heard anything from her since your dad died," Rina asked.

"No clue, she hasn't called or anything since she left the house a year after my dad died. She might of called my mom, but not me. Karen and I never really got along, she was a bit of a bitch, remember."

"Yeah I know, she's a year older than me and always hated everyone not in her group of friends. Man, I hated your sister in high school," Jack said.

"Well if you shouldn't call your sister a bitch if she hates you, it doesn't make sense to compliment people you hate," Maaya stated, as if this statement made total sense.

"Oh yeah good point, I'll have to call her a brat from now on," Tyler said, clearly agreeing with her.

"Huh? How is calling someone a bitch a compliment?" Kyouya asked, not understanding what they meant. He was unfamiliar with a few words in the English language, but he knew that calling someone a bitch was an insult and that it was a swear word.

"Oh, it's something our friend Tori found on this website and since Sock, crap I mean Melanie, calls everyone a bitch, Tori said it and we use it a lot now. It goes 'bitch is a female dog, dogs bark, bark on trees, trees are part of nature, nature is beautiful, so thanks for the compliment," Maaya said with a smirk.

Jack snorted with laughter at the phrase, "Nice, very nice, Maaya."

"I know, that's one of the reasons why I'm so awesome," she said, clearly joking. That was another thing Kyouya liked about her, she was free to be herself and didn't care what other people thought, but wasn't arrogant and didn't pretend to be better than anyone else.

"Ha, you wish," Rina replied, lightly punching her sister in the arm.

Maaya stuck out her tongue before saying, "Maybe, maybe not," and glancing shiftily from side to side. "Anyway, we should probably drop the swearing since my five-year-old cousin is in earshot, he may be sleeping but still."

"Yeah, good point, you can smack anyone upside the head if they swear," Jack said, glancing at Tyler as he said the last part.

"What? Why'd you look at me while you said that?" he asked, turning his head from side to side in total confusion.

"Well, it might have something to do with the fact that you swear at least once a day," Rina replied.

"Just a tiny bit," Maaya replied, holding her fingers closely together to emphasize the sarcasticness of her meaning.

"Hmm, you have a point. I give you my solemn vow that I shall do my best not to swear within the earshot of young children," Tyler said, shaking hands with Maaya to seal the deal before bursting out laughing at his fake formal accent.

"Sorry," Maaya apologized, sitting up as Jack shook his head at his laughing sisters and their friend. Kyouya just watched, silent and stoic as always, slightly amused by their mock fights and inside jokes, but never joining in. That was something the twins or Tamaki would do, not him.

"So, does anyone know when Katelyn is coming back from visiting her family in Scotland?" Jack asked, probably wondering how long they would have to watch Cale when Sam was working in his home office that he used during the holidays when Maaya and Rina were home.

"I think today or tomorrow, Sam probably told her ahead of time when they were coming home from New York so that she could leave. It should be soon, she's grown quite attached and most likely misses him, and the weather is pretty brutal in Scotland this time of year, so she might want to leave soon since it's only going to get worse each day since winter hasn't technically hit yet, it's only the sixth," Maaya replied; Kyouya had arrived on the 2nd so he'd been there a total of four days and had finally adjusted to the time zone. (This is before everyone arrives which is between the 7th and the 14th, except for the Host Club.)

"Yeah, that's true. I hope the snow holds off until after the fourteenth so that everyone gets her safely," Rina added, looking out the window towards the snow flurries blowing around outside. Jack and Tyler nodded in agreement and the group lapsed into silence as Maaya grabbed a sheet of paper and a pencil off the shelf next to the table and started sketching. She glanced up periodically, and Kyouya, being next to her, leaned over to see what she was drawing. She shoved him away and positioned him so that he was sitting exactly the way he'd been before he moved. He raised an eyebrow in question at her, but she was too busy drawing to notice. Rina and Tyler chuckled while Jack shook his head, but Maaya glared at him to show that she didn't want him to move.

"Maaya doesn't like to talk when she sketches, or for her subjects to move, it kind of screws up the drawing," Rina explained in a whisper so as not to disrupt her sister's concentration. Kyouya didn't know how long they sat there, but eventually she was finished, announcing it by shoving the finished work away from her and stretching her cramped fingers. Everyone sighed and switched positions to ease their cramped muscles as Maaya evaluated her drawing. Kyouya leaned forward a little and was shocked at the quality of it.

It was an exact copy of how everyone, except her, was sitting at the table. The surroundings were just how it should look and it amazed him how much detail and skill she'd put into it. There weren't any added things, she hadn't changed any of the surroundings to make it more interesting, it was just a simple drawing that looked almost as real as a photograph. Kyouya wanted to say something to compliment her on her work, but couldn't find any words adequate enough to describe it. Maaya soon noticed Kyouya analyzing her work and quickly shoved it out of view. "What?" she demanded, clearly not wanting him to see, most likely afraid he'd hate it or say it was terrible.

"Nothing, it's just that your drawing is great. Where'd you learn to draw like that?" He replied, letting his approval show so that she knew he didn't hate it. It was the most open he'd been with anyone since he'd left Japan and stopped talking to Tamaki.

"Thanks," she murmured, embarrassed, "I took a few art classes in school but not until eighth grade. I just always knew how to draw and shade everything, it's always been my way of relaxing and clearing my head or curing boredom so I did it often," she replied.

"Yeah, Maaya's always been a natural, I'd tell you to check out her art room and all the paintings she's done but she rarely lets anyone in it. Speaking of which, I'll take that," Rina said, grabbing the picture out of Maaya's hands. "Now I can frame it and put it on a wall so it can be seen," she added, glaring pointedly at her sister. Maaya grimaced in annoyance but didn't say anything in return, knowing Jack would join in and she'd never win.

"You know, she's got a point, Maay. You never let anyone see your work unless Jien, Rina, or I hang some of it up and threaten you to not take it down. You should let your artwork be seen so that it can be admired and you can get into a good school and become an artist," Jack added, agreeing with Rina, just like Kyouya had a feeling he would.

"Sue me," she replied sulkily, slouching down in her chair.

"Well now that we've discussed that, can we change the subject?" Tyler asked before Rina or Jack could make a comeback. He agreed with Rina and Jack, but knew it was the wrong place and time to berate her about it since Kyouya was there and had just complimented her on her work.

"Fine, but this isn't over, sis," Rina replied, glaring at her.

"It never is," Maaya muttered, sitting up and resting her head on the table, glaring right back at her older twin until Rina backed down. It seemed that no matter what the argument was, Kyouya noted, whenever Maaya glared at someone, they could never get her to back down, she always won.

"So, does anyone know when Tamaki and the Host Club is coming over?" Tyler asked suddenly, clearly thinking of a subject that _wouldn't_ lead to any argument.

"Actually, no, I believe Kyouya was in charge of that," Maaya replied.

"Wait, you guys invited Tamaki over!" Jack gasped in horror, clearly not pleased with the thought of his cousin coming over.

"Yes, he _is_ our cousin after all and we haven't seen him since he left France when Maaya and I were twelve, just a little while before you guys left for America, " Rina answered. "So, Kyouya, do you know when our cousin and your friends are coming over?"

"They'll arrive in England in a few days and spend a week at Hikaru and Kaoru's summer house in London so that your grandmother doesn't suspect anything before coming down so they'll arrive on the fifteenth," he explained as he pushed his glasses up his face.

"What's wrong with Tamaki coming over anyway?" Maaya asked, her eyebrow rose in curiosity and her tone colored with disapproval at her brother's reaction.

"It's just he always got on my nerves and bugged me, then there's something else that he did, but that's a long story that should not be repeated," Jack explained, shuddering at the memory of whatever had happened.

"Whatever, you're just going to have to deal with it since he's _our_ cousin too, and Kyouya's friend," Maaya replied before leaving the room and making sure Cale was still asleep and comfortable on her way out. The rest soon departed with Jack going to his room to talk with his mysterious and still unknown girlfriend, Kyouya went to go email Tamaki a checklist so that he didn't forget anything important, such as underwear, and Rina and Tyler hung out, watching Cale.

That conversation had been a week ago, it was now the eleventh and everyone had arrived except for the Host Club which was expected in a few days. Kyouya wasn't going to admit it, but he was looking forward to seeing his friends, and he could tell that Maaya and Rina were looking forward to see their cousin and curious about the mysterious Host Club. The rest were just curious and wanted to meet the cousin of their friends.


	6. Chapter 6

Kyouya sighed and leaned back from his pineapple laptop. He had never learned why Rina had come home a day early. She'd been expected the day after he arrived, but had arrived at night. He assumed that she had caught an earlier train or something like that. He'd just finished researching Maaya and her family and friends, for some strange reason that he could not identify, he was curious about her and wanted to know more. Once everyone had arrived, he'd barely gotten a spare moment with her, but now that everything had calmed down a bit, they'd sat in her room or a living room and talked. She didn't mind her sister spending a lot of time with Murtagh, who turned out to be Rina's boyfriend, much to his surprise. She often spent time with him or Tyler, while Tyler talked to many of their friends. The rest kept to themselves, they all knew Maaya and were familiar with her, but didn't feel the need to spend every second with her, as Tamaki would when he arrived. 

Kyouya stared at the list he'd compiled. It had everyone on it and he'd researched their backgrounds and found out about their families and such. Maaya had explained a lot of what had happened to them and why they acted they way they did. Devon, for example, had been kidnapped when she was three and still living in Seattle, Washington. Six months later she'd appeared in Los Angeles, California, hundreds of miles from home, in a horribly dangerous city, and half-dead with starvation. All she could remember was darkness, someone shouting at her, and wandering in L.A. until a police car picked her up and asked her what had happened. Her parents were immediately alerted and she was safe at home the next day. Nobody knew what had been done to her, not even Devon herself, a psychologist said that she'd probably blacked it out to protect herself, and the only side effect was that her father was insanely paranoid. After hearing this, Kyouya began to understand Devon and her family a little better. He'd looked them up and found out that Val's brother, Vrale, had been killed when Vrale was eight and Val six by their own father. He'd never been convicted as there was no substantial evidence, but who else could it have been? Almost everyone had lost a parent or some family member earlier, and yet they were making it through still happy and forgetting the pain and sorrow of losing their family.

Kyouya didn't know why he was researching everyone. Was it to make sure they could be trusted and wouldn't hurt Maaya? If so, why did he care so much for her well-being? They'd only met a few weeks ago and yet he couldn't stop thinking about her, or wondering what she thought of him. He sighed and lay down on his bed. He'd finished _Wuthering Heights_ and had declared it a strange and bizarre book, he honestly didn't see why Maaya enjoyed it so much, it wasn't a love story, it was a hate story. When he'd asked her this, she'd told him it was the ending. That even though Catherine had married Edgar Linton when she still loved Heathcliff, they'd ended up together after their deaths. She pitied Heathcliff but detested Catherine, she'd brought all the pain and suffering on herself, Maaya had insisted. The best part was the ending , though, how even though Heathcliff had been horrible to Hareton and Catherine's daughter Catherine Linton, they'd ended up together and happy once he died. The fact that they'd both suffered so much at the hands of Heathcliff's wickedness and still ended up happy and no longer alone, made it all the worthwhile. That was why she loved the book and Kyouya saw her point. 

Kyouya had started watching Maaya whenever possible. He noted a lot of things about her and several habits that she had, such a constantly carrying a sketchbook with her and a pencil tucked behind 

her ear. Her dark brown curly hair was nearly always tied away from her face so that she could draw or write without it getting in the way. Also, she had a habit of twirling her hair as she read and often her emotions were easier to read when she read. Whenever something big happened, her eyes grew wide and her jaw often dropped, it was amusing to be sitting there typing as she read and hear her gasp or cry out whenever she understood something. For some reason, it made him happy that she was so open with him and didn't try to hide her emotions. 

He glanced at the clock, it was seven in the morning. This surprised him since he used to hate waking up in the morning and made a point of sleeping late whenever possible. He sat up and went over to the entirely stocked bookcase in search for the book s that Maaya had recommended he read next. One other thing he'd noticed was that there were books everywhere, sitting on end tables, underneath furniture, half filled bookcases were strewn about the house. Not to mention the huge library on the third floor Maaya had showed him the other day. It was enormous with a ton of sky lights since it was on the west wing and an extension of the ancient house so there were no rooms on top of it. There were countless rows arranged just like a library, there was even a couple computers that had all the books entered into it so that you could look up there location. The book was a short one and he found it on the bookcase in his room. He glanced at the simple cover, the author's name on top with a black and white drawing of a Ferris wheel with the title, _The Five People You Meet in Heave_, underneath. Kyouya started reading for about an hour before deciding it was late enough to go downstairs and get some breakfast.

Much to his surprise, Maaya and Rina's rooms' doors were open, and no one was in them and they weren't eating breakfast when he got downstairs. Other people were, such as Jack, Avery, Garrett, their step- brother, Murtagh, and Katelyn. He remembered that she had arrived the day after Cale had with a huge, pregnant belly and two dogs, a black husky named Shadow and a yellow lab named Sadie. Maaya and Rina had been delighted while Cale had been ecstatic. They loved her dogs which she'd adopted from the animal shelter a few years ago. She lived with Sam and Cale at their request and as a result the dogs were as much Cale's as hers. She was expecting her child in about two months and had chosen not to know the gender since it was her first child and she wanted it to be a surprise, yet everyone had a hunch it was going to be a girl. Katelyn was young, about twenty-five with no boyfriend or fiancée or husband. Nobody was sure how she'd gotten pregnant, they guessed it was either a sperm donor or possibly she had a secret relationship going on with Jien, no one was sure but the latter was the most popular and Cale just knew she was going to have a baby soon, that was all. She had straight brown hair down to her back and would clearly make a good mom even without a father to help, she would manage with Sam and Cale. 

Kyouya sat down at the table without a word and a maid brought over a plate of fried eggs with toast. There was cheese and butter on the table along with other condiments. He poured himself a glass of juice and started eating. Avery and Garrett were talking quietly as Katelyn read a book and Jack didn't say anything, since nobody woke up at the same time, they all ate breakfast at different times so it was usually a quiet event, unlike dinner. Everyone at dinner at the same time in the big dining room and it got pretty hectic, but Kyouya enjoyed it. It was very different from the quiet meals he'd had with his family. Nobody shouted in anger, they just joked around and laughed, enjoying everyone's company.

"Where are Maaya and Rina, they usually eat around this time," Kyouya asked, wondering if Maaya was painting, but there was no music coming from her art studio, she always listened to classical music when she painted, he'd noticed that too.

"They had to go somewhere," Jack replied vaguely before returning to his eggs.

"Where?" he asked, curious, and suspicious. Where would they go at eight o'clock in the morning? For a reason that Kyouya couldn't identify, he felt a pang in his heart, why didn't Maaya tell him where she and Rina were going? Didn't she trust him? Kyouya mentally shook his head, he was being ridiculous, he shouldn't get so worked up, they'd only known him a couple of weeks.

"Just this place they had to go to, they left around 6:30. I'm not allowed to tell you, we've all been sworn to secrecy and if we break it, she'll kill us. The only people that don't know are Kyprioth since he can't be trusted and Tyler since we're not allowed to tell him, you, or anyone else that doesn't know," Garrett replied, breaking from his conversation as Avery nodded in agreement. Garrett had light brown hair that was slightly longer than his and purposely stuck out in all directions. "They'll be back around ten." Kyouya sighed, he knew he wouldn't get any more out of them. Maaya could be a very scary person when she wanted to be. She always kept promises and made good on threats if anyone broke a promise to anyone in her family.

"I'm surprised it took you this long to notice, they've been going to this thing ever since the day they got back," Avery added as Twilight came in yawning and stretching, his blue-black hair sticking out at every angle. Kyouya still didn't understand how his hair was that color, he claimed not to dye it, but how else could his hair be such an unusual color? Twi sat down and grabbed a piece of toast and glass of milk.

"So what are you guys talking about?" Twi asked curiously as another maid brought him some eggs. It was interesting how they seemed to know whenever someone would need breakfast.

"Where Maaya and Rina are this morning," Avery answered simply. "Why are you so tired, though?"

"I stayed up late studying for the math, history, English, and science tests I have to take today. I'm working over-time to catch up as much as I can, since I'm still about a year behind," he explained as everyone nodded in understanding. Kyouya didn't know what they were talking about since he hadn't looked up Twilight and Adrian's background as of yet. 

"Why are you a year behind?" Kyouya asked, Twilight was two months older than Iris and Ally who were a year older than him while Avery and Garrett were his age. Ally and Iris were still in high school since their father had held them back so that Iris, Ally, Elektra, and Avery were all in the same class.

"I was in a car accident when I was fourteen, actually it was on Ally and Iris's birthday, and my head smacked off a ton of stuff and I ended up in a coma for about two years so I've been studying at 

home and doing my best to catch up," he explained, and Kyouya noticed the scar on his right arm that went from his wrist to his elbow. It was clearly from the accident.

"You're never going to catch up, you know, I'm going to graduate with my sisters and you'll be stuck with Maaya, Rina, Ky, Tyler, and their wacky friends," Avery told him. He had reddish-brown hair that went down to his shoulders with hazel eyes. 

"Yeah, but I can try to graduate with you guys so I don't feel all left behind. Also, since when has Ky been included in Maaya and Ree's group of friends? Considering the fact that he stole the keys to her art room last year and she had to tackle him to get them back and Ky is a total idiot," Twi replied as Jack smiled at his comment before silently leaving the table. Katelyn sighed and got up too, leaving the four of them alone.

"Yeah, good point but you know what I mean," Avery replied as he and Garrett chuckled at the memory of Maaya tackling their idiotic brother, or in Garret's case step-brother, to the ground and smashing his head against the wall.

"What are you talking about?" Kyouya asked as he shoved his empty plate away.

"Oh, well everyone's been coming here for Christmas since tenth grade since that was when we all escaped my psychotic mother. Since Devon has the most devious and scheming twin brothers in the world, Maaya had a key lock and deadbolt put on her door so that Fred and George couldn't get in and wreck everything. So Ky got it into his head that it would be funny to steal Maaya's key ring which has her house keys, art room keys, and keys to the kitchen, which has been locked ever since Cale was born. She got really ticked off and had to tackle him to the ground and his head smacked into the wall, it was absolutely hysterical and we bring it up just to annoy him whenever we can," Garrett explained as he tried not to crack up. 

"I remember that, it was so funny, you should have been there," Twi added with a smile. It seemed that despite the fact that his father had died from an illness a year before he was born and his mother died when he was born, he was a generally optimistic and humorous person. As Kyouya thought about all of Maaya and Rina's friends and relatives that were only relatives by law, he realized that most of them had suffered a terrible loss or accident, or both, but were getting over it and made it through life as best as they could. Even though he was usually a cold and emotionless person, Kyouya found himself smiling more and more as he spent more time around everyone. He knew it was because they were actually treating him like they cared and no one had said anything about not wanting him here or how they better not stay in their way. They all were genuinely interested in what he liked and what his life in Japan had been like without any hidden meanings or secret intentions.

He eventually left the breakfast table, leaving Twi, Avery, and Garrett to their conversation. They didn't mind, they enjoyed his company but understood he was used to being a loner and doing things by himself rather than hanging with friend and that it would take a while for him to change, if ever. Kyouya walked back to his room and wondered where Maaya and Rina would go for three and a half hours every morning. He hadn't noticed because he never woke up before 10:30 so they were 

already back by the time he was awake. Kyouya sighed; Tamaki and the Host Club were arriving today at around four o'clock. Tyler was clearly still sleeping, and as Kyouya walked past Maaya's empty art room, he wondered if she'd forgotten to lock it by chance. There was a deadbolt at the top to prevent the little ones from reaching it and a key lock to keep Ky and anyone else she didn't trust away. He undid the deadbolt and turned the doorknob, but it wouldn't move, the door was locked. Kyouya shook his head, Maaya wasn't the type of person to forget to lock the door to her most precious room and he was a fool for even considering it.

The morning passed slowly without Maaya to talk to, sure he could talk to Garrett, Ky, Avery, Twi, Adrian, Alec, or someone else but he didn't relate to them as well as Maaya, and to tell the truth, he missed her. Kyouya didn't know why, but he felt almost as if something was missing and she'd only been gone for an hour. He got up, tired of sitting on his bed and not in the mood to read or research, he went into the music room and picked up a violin. Without taking out any of the sheet music that was in a folder on the stage that was in the room for some strange reason, Kyouya began to play a song that he'd memorized a long time ago. No one knew why there was a stage in the room, the house was old and had been in her father's family for several generations, so it might have been a ballroom or something. After he finished the song, Kyouya picked up the folder and pulled out the first sheet of music he found. It was attached to four others, so the song was a total of five pages and to his surprised quite difficult. Kyouya was a pretty good violinist, but as he stumbled through the song, he realized that Maaya was an expert as the song had "Expert" printed in the top left corner. It took a long time, but he eventually got to the point where he could play the song with only missing a few notes. 

Just as he made it to the end of the 3rd page, someone knocked on the door and it opened to reveal Maaya standing there holding a violin and flute case. She was wearing a low cut, blue v-neck sweater with jeans and socks. Her dark brown, shoulder length, curly hair was flecked with bits of melting snow and her eyes danced behind blue rimmed glasses. Kyouya stopped playing immediately and glanced at the clock, it was eleven o'clock already. He'd been playing for three hours straight. He noticed that her glasses frames were blue instead of black, she must have gotten new ones.

"Hi, so you're the one who's playing in here. Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, but I have to put these back. We went to go get them cleaned since Rina and I use them so often," Maaya explained as she opened the closet in the back left corner of the room and placed the instruments gently on the shelves. Just as she closed the door to the shelved closet, she stumbled backward and leaned against the closet door, holding her head. Kyouya immediately rushed to her sighed and held her to keep her from falling as she leaned against his arms, holding her head as she gasped in pain. He slowly lowered her to the ground so that she was half sitting, half lying in his lap, leaning her head against his shoulder as she fainted.

"Maaya, Maaya!" he called in desperation as her eyelids fell shut and she leaned against him heavily as her arms fell to her sides. "Maaya, wake up!" he repeated, shaking her gently to wake her up without harming her. After what seemed a long time to him, she opened her eyes, and raised her hands to hold her head again. Kyouya sighed in relief, glad that she was awake and not seriously injured, he 

hoped. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, not even himself, but deep inside, Kyouya knew he'd never been more scared in his life, not even when his mother had died when he was a little boy.

She moaned softly, her face drawn in pain and exhaustion. "Kyouya?" she asked as she looked up at him, puzzled to see him holding her on the floor. "What- what happened?" Maaya asked, trying to clear her head and end her confusion.

"You fainted, are you alright?" he asked, looking at her with concern and worry, something he hadn't shown in a long, long time. The last time Kyouya had been this scared and worried was when his mother had gotten sick with an incurable strain meningitis and died a few days later. 

"Yeah, I think so, I just feel really light-headed and dizzy," she answered, sitting up a little so she wasn't leaning against him. He hadn't noticed it before, but she smelled really good, not as if she'd put an expensive perfume on, but her skin just had this wonderful fragrance that was making his head swim a little. Kyouya mentally shook himself, his friend had just fainted and all he could think about was how good she smelled! 

"Do you think you can stand?" he asked. She nodded in reply and he helped her stand, but she stumbled and fell against him. Kyouya caught her and led her to the stage, which she sat down on. "You're probably low on blood-sugar, I'll get you some juice," he said, diagnosing her with his medical knowledge, but Maaya just shook her head, and pressed a button on the wall next to her. It was an intercom system that led to the kitchen. "Hello?" a female voice asked, coming through a small speaker Kyouya hadn't noticed before.

"Angie, could you get someone to bring me some juice and something with sugar in it? Also, tell them to get me a couple pain-killers for my headache," Maaya said, having recognized the voice of the person on the other head.

"Sure, coming right up, kiddo. Are you sure you don't want me to call a doctor, this is the second headache you've gotten this week, and you fainted last week," Angie replied, anxiety clear in her voice.

"No, I'm fine, I just probably didn't get enough to eat or something. Don't worry, we have Aclarion, Avondale, and Val here right now, with three doctors in one house I think we're good," Maaya smiled as she assured Angie she was fine.

"Alright, Aya, a glass of juice, some cookies, and two Advil comin' right up," Angie sighed, and Maaya let go of the button, laying down on the stage.

"You fainted last week, and got two headaches in two consecutive days? You should see a doctor, something might be seriously wrong," Kyouya said, sitting on the stage next to her head.

"I'm fine, really I am. But I'll talk to Aclarion if it makes you happy," Maaya said with a sigh and rolling her eyes at his concern.

"Why did she call you Aya, is that a nickname or something?"

"Oh, all the sudden interest in my name. It's something my mother used to call me when I was sick, I was always her little Aya-chan. Then Tamaki started calling me that , so I became Aya-chan to him and my parents," she replied, sighing with sadness at the memory of her lost parents and the cousin she hadn't seen in over three years.

"So Aclarion, Avondale, and Val are doctors?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah, they all work at a major hospital in London and are the most successful surgery team north of Norfolk. Aclarion specializes in the nervous system and genetic disorders, Avondale a hematologist (for those of you that don't what that is a hematologist is someone that studies blood), and Val deals with all sorts of cancer patients. They just did a major surgery on this seven-year-old girl named Emily that had a brain tumor and lung cancer a few weeks ago. She's doing fine now, but came all the way from north Scotland and her family couldn't afford the surgery so Aclarion, Avondale, and Sam, and Val's cousin Patrick who has a lot of money put away all chipped in to pay for her medical bills since their insurance won't cover all of it," Maaya explained as a maid came in carrying a tray with a tall class of juice, a plate of cookies, and two whit pills. Maaya smiled and sat up as the maid set the tray down next to her. 

"Thank you," Maaya said as the maid bowed and left the room while Maaya took the Advil with the juice and took a bite of a cookie, offering once to Kyouya. He shook his head and declined, to which she shrugged and set them down in between them. He leaned back so that he was now laying on the stage too, parallel to Maaya with one leg dangling off the edge and his left foot resting on the edge of the stage, knee bent. 

Kyouya smiled to himself, he was never this open or relaxed around anyone, not even Tamaki, and especially not his family, maybe Fuyumi on occasion. Maaya and her family that consisted of people not related to her, but she knew so well they were considered family, didn't mind seeing both sides of him. They'd never heard of him, well Maaya and Rina had only heard that he was their cousin's best friend, so they didn't expect anything and weren't disappointed or surprised when he did something that was out of character. Slowly, they were breaking down the walls he'd spent so many years building to seal away his heart.

"You know, you really should consider looking at school's to go to. You're not an illegal immigrant or anything, so you could go to pretty much any school you wanted what with your good grades and what not," Maaya said, laying back down after finishing the juice and a few cookies. The plate had twenty still left, so they just sat on the stage. 

"Yeah, I need to finish my schooling, but I don't know anything about English history compared to what you must have learned. Plus, now that I don't want to take over my father's company any more, I don't know what to do with my life," Kyouya answered, but he had been thinking about it. Maybe the schools would cut him some slack or something about the history stuff.

"Well, at my school you have to take history, English, and maths, but the rest you can choose what class you want to take. Also, there are pre-law and pre-med courses you could take, so you 

wouldn't be that far behind. Maths is the same everywhere, except for the number symbols, and you've already know English, and how to write well so that's fine. I could help you with the history stuff, if you do go to my school, if you wanted," Maaya offered, turning her head sideways to look at him.

"What about tuition, and room and board? I don't have the money to pay for that, well I have some saved up, but it's not much now that I've converted it to Euros and saved with another bank."

"There are such things as scholarships, you know. Rina and I go to St. Judith's on art and music scholarships. A lot of people donate money to our school and offer scholarships, that's how most of the student body pays for it. You have the grades for a scholarship; maybe you could do pre-med and learn to be a doctor since you know so much about the medical field already."

"That's true, but I'm not sure how to apply for one, or what I'd have to do to get it."

"It's actually quite easy, you have to write a letter saying why you need a scholarship and think you deserve it compared to someone else. Then they look at your grades and you have to decide what you're going to major in, such as science or liberal arts, and there's an interview you have to get, after that the dean of students, principal, superintendant, and a few others decide whether they think you deserve it or not and send you a letter telling you their decision. It's all straightforward really, but you have to keep up grades and out of trouble or they'll revoke your scholarship," Maaya explained, sitting up and turning so that her feet were kicking the stage wall. "Rina and I have to renew our scholarships each year buy emailing them a letter and then they interview us again."

"That doesn't sound too hard, I suppose I could manage it, bu I'm not sure what to do. All I've ever known is doing what I could to inherit the company from my father," Kyouya mused, not sure whether he should just keep on the medical tract or do something else entirely.

"Well, you could be a doctor or pharmacist if you wanted. Or, you could major in business and join the publishing company, Sam wouldn't mind taking you on. He might even let you inherit it, since Jack is getting a finance company from _his_ father, Rina is probably going to be a famous pianist or flutist and join a symphony, while I'll do the same, or live off my drawings and paintings if I can. The only one left is Cale, and he's only five, so Sam doesn't want to force him into accepting it, he wants Cale to choose for himself," Maaya said, fiddling with a pendant hanging around her neck.

"He'd give his company to a total stranger?" Kyouya asked, very much in doubt.

"Well, you wouldn't be a stranger by the time you finished college, would you? And you could just work at the company until he chooses to retire, or if Cale decides he wants it or the company goes public, you could start your own. But that's just if you want to do publishing, you don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not trying to force you or anything, I'm just dishing out options," Maaya said, her longer hair covering her face as she looked at her feet bouncing off the wall.

"When I was growing up and realized I would have to fight with my brothers to inherit the company, I only thought about how helping someone could benefit me, even if I only thought it up as an excuse later. I was always looking for ways to make my father proud and stand out from my brothers, 

every time I did something, I had to have a reason that would benefit me or my father's business. It'd be nice to escape that world for once since I no longer bear any connection to my family," Kyouya told her, surprised with himself, that was the most he'd ever said to anyone ever, he'd never even told Fuyumi or Tamaki that he'd felt that way, even though he'd felt it for a while now.

"That's why Val, Aclarion, and Avondale decided to become doctors, they enjoyed helping people when asking for nothing in return. Sure their patients had to pay for the medications and check-ups and surgeries, but they were still making a difference in the world, no matter how small," Maaya said, looking at him through her curtain of dark hair. "So if that's what you want to do, I think you should be some sort of doctor since it's the most anyone can do or ask for." Kyouya looked at her in surprise, she clearly knew more about the world and the actions of people in it than she was letting on. She seemed to understand him more than anyone else ever had and she didn't even try. His heart constricted slightly and Kyouya smiled, glad that she'd helped him find a solution without him even asking for help. He was really beginning to like this house and the people in it, especially the girl sitting next to him. 


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long, I've been suffering from severe writier's block and was hesitant to write the parts of the Host Club, even though they're not that big in this chapter, but will be in upcoming ones. Also, I forgot to mention at the end of the last chapter when Maaya is talking about "maths" that's not a typo, in England math is called "maths", just so you know.

* * *

For the next few hours Maaya showed him her essays and letters she'd had to send in, also the questions they might ask him during the interview. She'd helped him start a rough plan for his letter and told him what he should put in and how he should phrase it so he sounded worthy of the scholarship, but not too pompous or anything. Kyouya liked spending time with her; his heart sped up a little every time he saw her. He still didn't understand why he worried about her a little when she and Rina left in the mornings. He'd never actually seen them leave, every time he set his alarm clock; it seemed someone always set it a half hour later while he slept. He wondered who it was but knew that with all the mischievous and scheming people in this house, it could be almost anyone.

Maaya left once he understood what to write since she said she needed a break and went to her room to paint. They were going to pick up Tamaki and the Host Club at five from the train station, their flight had been delayed due to the weather, it was horrible in London. Kyouya leaned back from his desk where'd he'd been starting his rough draft when he heard soft and gentle music coming from the room down the hall, Maaya was painting again. Kyouya wondered what it looked like in that room, Rina was always bugging Maaya about her artwork when Maaya came out or finished a sketch. She also kept saying how Maaya rarely let anyone in and Maaya replied that it meant a lot more to her than any of the sketches she did. He remembered what Avery and Alec had told him a few days ago when he'd asked why Maaya's art room was so important to her.

Flashback

"_So, why does Maaya always say that it's different when it comes to her art room when Rina tells her she should let more people see her artwork?" Kyouya asked as Aver flipped through the channels on the TV an Alec read a book called _Tuesdays with Morrie._ As soon as he asked this, Alec turned off the TV and Alec set his book aside._

"_Well, you know that Maaya doesn't really show her emotions like Rina does. She needs some way to vent and let it out so she does that through her artwork, most of which is in the art room," Avery began, "When she first moved to Pennsylvania with Jack and I met her, she didn't say a word, all she did was nod when Garrett introduced us and disappeared into her room. Then she went to boarding school and came back for part of her Christmas break; she was a lot happier and started actually talking, but it was a looong time before she started drawing in front of me. Maaya was better, but still really depressed and lonely since she missed her sister and was homesick. That's when Rina and Jien put their plan into action and created the art room so that she could express her feelings. Whenever she'd sad or really happy, she paints what she feels on the walls."_

_Alec nodded in agreement, "It means a lot to her because she's been working on this mural that spans three wall so far since seventh grade and it's everything she's felt since then. It's like you can see her emotions and actually get a good look at what she's really feeling for once, instead of just a glimpse. It's very personal and means a lot to her, it's not just about her artwork, it's about what it says and the memories it brings," he added. Kyouya leaned back and thought about this, so art was the way she let everything out and he realized it must have helped her get over her parents' death and what she missed about home and her family when she'd had to leave._

 End Flashback

Kyouya suddenly noticed that the music had stopped. He looked at the time, it was one thirty, Maaya must have gotten something to eat. He got up and went down to the kitchen to fill his empty stomach. In three hours they were leaving to pick up the Host Club. Kyouya would never admit it to anyone, but he was looking forward to seeing Tamaki and the rest of the Host Club, they'd been the closest thing he'd ever had to friends. As he entered the kitchen, he knew where pretty much everything was in the house, he noticed Maaya sitting around the table with Iris, Ally, and Avery while Angie talked to them and asked Maaya how she was. Maaya waved a hand over, glad for the distraction, and he sat down next to her. "You should really talk to a doctor, Maaya, this just isn't normal and you look a little pale," Angie said worriedly.

"I'm fine, Angie, honest. It's nothing, I've been running a bit more than normal, so my body's just a little tired, that's all. Don't worry, you're overreacting," Maaya assured her. Angie then sighed, unsatisfied, and walked back to the stove to finish cooking.

"Maybe she's right, Maay, maybe you should talk to Aclarion or someone," Ally said as Iris nodded in agreement. Iris and Ally were twins but looked nothing alike, Ally had long blond hair while Iris's was short and black with white streaks. It was impossible to mix them up even though they were the same height, thin, but not extremely, and muscular. They were a few inches taller than Maaya and the same height as Avery.

"Guys, I'm fine, it's nothing don't worry. I'll go to sleep early tonight, I promise," she replied, clearly wanting to drop the subject.

"O.K., O.K., but if you faint again, we're taking you straight to the hospital. Anyway, on to lighter topics, such as when you're cousin and his friends are arriving," Avery said, knowing they couldn't convince Maaya to talk to a doctor, she was too stubborn, just like a lot of people he knew.

"We're going to pick them up at the train station at half past four so we'll get there around five, which is when they're train arrives," Maaya explained as Angie brought over the food and gave everyone a plate before returning to the sink to clean.

"You know, all seven of them won't fit in the Cadillac," Iris said matter-of-factly.

"Seven? I thought that there were only six other than Kyouya," Ally asked.

"There are, but since Kyouya's going too I assume along with Jack, Rina, and Maaya. That Cadillac doesn't seat more than eight, six in the back and two in the front counting the driver," Iris explained.

"That's why I'm not driving the Cadillac, Raven's letting me take her car since it can seat ten people which is what we need," Maaya told them. Kyouya was taken aback; he didn't know she could drive.

"Wait, I thought you didn't have your license yet, how can you drive?" Avery asked, eyes widened in surprise, while Iris and Ally didn't even look up from their food.

"I don't, not yet, but I do have my permit and Jack's old enough so that I can drive with him in the front seat. You know Jack taught me to drive when I was fourteen and I've been able to drive on the highway since I was fifteen and I'm almost seventeen now, just a few more weeks," she replied calmly.

"I know, our little baby's all grown up," Ally said, faking tears and adopting a high-pitched, motherly voice as she pretended to wipe tears from her eyes.

"I still can't believe how he got away with that," Avery said, referring to Jack teaching Maaya to drive in eight grade during the summer in Pennsylvania.

"Well since it was his car and in the parking lot of an old vacant building or in the back-roads behind Johnny's house, no one found out," Maay replied.

"Who's Johnny and when's your birthday?" Kyouya asked, unable to follow the conversation.

"Oh, Johnny is a friend of Jack's from Pennsylvania and is also Garrett's step-brother. He moved in with Johnny and his younger brother Duke who's Garrett's best friend after Evelyn went psychotic and tried to kill him," Maaya explained.

"Yeah, that was fun, everyone's just hanging around in the basement in the summer before tenth grade watching a movie and Evelyn suddenly storms downstairs, back hands him so hard her ring slices his face open and freaks out. She went crazy; it took half the soccer team to hold her back," Avery added, shaking his head at the memory.

Maaya nodded in agreement, "And my birthday is on January first, New Year's Day 12:01. Rina was born a few minutes before me on December thirty-first at 11:59, so we're twins but were born on different days and in different years." She smirked as she ate, it clearly amused her that she was only a couple minutes younger than her sister, yet they were born in two different months, days and years.

Kyouya just turned to his food and tried to look indifferent, but on the inside he was reeling. Maaya and Rina's birthday was in a few weeks, as was Christmas. He head to buy gifts for them and the Host Club but couldn't afford to buy anyone else gifts since he was low on cash for the first time ever in his whole life. It was quite shocking really. Other than the fact that his funds were limited, he had no idea what to get them. He knew they liked music but probably had all the music they wanted and the best quality instruments money could buy. He'd have to ask Garrett or Avery later since they knew Maaya and Rina better.

Just as Kyouya was considering what he knew not to get Maaya, Rina walked in with curly hair instead of her naturally straight hair, glasses, and an outfit identical to Maaya's in every way. They both wore blue v-necked sweaters with a white camisole underneath, dark blue jeans, and white socks with no shoes. The only difference at all was that Maaya's hair was a dark brown while Ree's was a dark blond bordering light brown. Kyouya remembered how on the first day he'd seen Rina and Maaya next 

to each other he'd thought they looked nothing alike and wondered if they were really twins, but now there was almost no difference and it was hard to tell them apart for once.

"Whoa! Rina looks like Maaya, or does Maaya look like Rina?" Iris said, looking up from the notebook she was analyzing, astonished at Rina's appearance.

"Ree looks like Maaya since her hair is curly, but then again, Maaya's is impossible to straighten. We tried for three hours once and it just wouldn't straighten, it was actually sort of funny," Ally said, not seeming shocked by her step-sisters' appearances.

"Why are you making an effort to look the same, though? I mean Ree's usually in contacts and has straight hair, this only happens on rare occasions for certain purposes. So explain, now," Avery said, he didn't look surprised, just puzzled.

"Well Tamaki's arriving and it's the first time we've seen him in over three years, so we figured we'd confuse him a bit in retaliation for him waking us up at two in the morning when we'd only had four hours of sleep the night before," Ree explained as she and Maaya shared a devilish grin that he'd seen on Hikaru and Kaoru too many times before, this was going to be an interesting day, that was for sure.

"Oh, ok. I should have expected this, knowing you two. A deed never goes unpunished, or un-rewarded, in this household," Avery replied with a smile.

"Indeed," Maaya answered. "I don't think there's anything else to do now but wait to leave, Raven's car is out front, the bedrooms are all clean and prepared, so all we have to do is pick them up now," she muttered to herself, going down a checklist in her head.

They finished lunch and went off to do something to pass the time, Maaya and Rina were reading, Ally and Iris were working on a car they'd bought a while ago and were seeing how long it would take to make it into a decent car (or in their terms: able to go at least 150 mph), and Avery was hacking a soccer ball around with Garrett , Alec, Twi, and Aaron in one of the empty ball rooms so they would damage anything. There were quite a few ballrooms strewn about the house, the fourth floor contained a gym with a treadmill, weights, bikes, a track, and an Olympic size swimming pool. The third floor had guest bedrooms, an few locked doors, presumably offices and a huge library stocked with every kind of book imaginable. The second floor had a few sitting rooms, guest bedrooms on the east wing, the west wing was the part that contained his room, Tyler's room, Maaya and Rina's rooms, their study, the music room, and Maaya's mysterious art room.

Kyouya found himself restless without anything to occupy his mind. He donned a coat and wandered around the grounds, there was a huge gate that bordered most of the land, but ended where the woods began. There was a small stables that held a horse for Sam and Cale's pony, Maaya and Rina didn't have horses since it was too much of a hassle to carry them from school and back and they weren't home often enough to take care of them so they just used the ones at school on occasion. There was a huge field to the right of the house where a few people were playing soccer in the freezing cold 

winter, a garage held all of the cars a few yards away from the house, and a pond to the left that was about fifty feet all around and entirely iced over, he could see Maris, Ariya, Chris, Aaron, Aranel, and Ben skating on it. Ben was dating Maris and his family had been friends with hers for a long time. Also, Ben had an older cousin named Matt that everyone called Kaine for some strange reason who was dating Raven. They'd arrived a few days ago to the surprise of everyone. Sadie and Shadow were running around with Devon, her younger brothers, and Elly. He eventually went back inside to warm up and discovered it was almost time to go. He got dressed into something appropriate and got ready to go.

"Hey, Kyouya, we're leaving now, so come on," Maaya said, jingling the car keys she'd gotten off Raven as she walked by his open door. He got up, shutting the door securely behind him. Kyouya was actually looking forward to seeing Tamaki, believe it or not, he missed his friend and the rest of the Host Club. He'd kept in touch to make sure they didn't go bankrupt or anything and to make all the arrangements for the upcoming events Tamaki planned.

They all piled into the SUV hybrid that had ten seats, three in the front, three in the second row, and four in the third row. The trunk was almost non-existent since it was tiny so Kyouya figured they rarely used the last row and just kept it folded down. Maaya was in the front seat with Jack sitting in the window seat next to her, Rina was in the middle of the first row with Cale on her left so he got in next to her. "Cale wanted to come along too after he learned we were going to pick up Tamaki. He was only two that last time he saw him, so we figured he could come," Rina explained as Maaya started the car and they drove off to the train station. It was a short drive through the town, Kyouya saw that it was a small town with a huge cathedral and a few other small churches for other religions and houses of pretty much the same style. There were a few small storefronts and a movie theater. They reached the train station a little early to find that their train had been delayed another half-hour.

It was clear that Jack, Maaya, and Rina knew their way around the train station and Cale was familiar with it, but was only five so he didn't know much. They sat down where they were supposed to arrive and waited. Snow was falling again and seemed to be coming down thicker every minute. "Blizzard's coming early, it wasn't supposed to start snowing for a few more days," Jack noted as Maaya handed Cale a coloring book and a box of crayons to keep him happy. He was smiling innocently as he colored the pages, almost staying in the lines.

"Well that's English weather for you, unpredictable as ever," Maaya replied. Just then two boys on bikes ran by and circled back, much to the annoyance of everyone else walking around in the train station. One had shaggy brown hair and blue eyes and wore blue jeans, a black hoodie, and skater shoes while the other had dirty blond hair, brown eyes, blue jeans, an open button up shirt over a t-shirt and a jean jacket with flat black and white sneakers. They were grinning from ear to ear as there was a sign that clearly stated: No rollerblades, no skateboards, and no bikes and there wasn't a security guard in sight.

"Well hello, Rina, Maaya, Jack, random guy, and little boy, fancy seeing you here on this fine day" the blond haired one said as they faced them with their feet on the ground, ready to speed away in case a guard showed up. Maaya and Rina burst out laughing, Jack smirked and shook his head, Cale 

looked puzzled, and Kyouya was shocked.  
"Hi, Conner, Caleb, this is my cousin Cale, and our friend, Kyouya. Kyouya, Cale, this is Caleb and Conner," Maaya said, gesturing to the brown haired boy, then to the blond one to distinguish them.

"And what are you guys doing here, other than causing mischief and annoying or entertaining people?" Rina asked, folding her arms over her chest and raising an eyebrow in question.

"Just that, nothing else. We were bored and didn't have anything better to do today," Caleb answered honestly with a smirk.

Maaya rolled her eyes, "Very nice, guys. We're here to pick up my cousin, Tamaki, and his friends."

"Oh, the one from Japan that you haven't seen in three years because of your evil grandmother?" Conner asked.

"The very same," Jack answered.

"Cool, we'd stick around to meet him and his friends, but we better get going cause I see a guard at three o'clock," and with that, they hopped on their bikes and rode off towards the exit.

"See ya at the festival!" Conner called back as they biked away, turning back to wave. Maaya and Rina laughed as they saw five guards, all of them either old, fat, or both running behind them, desperately trying to catch the boys, but failing utterly.

"Oooh, was that a hint of a date I detected in CJ's voice?" Jack asked teasingly towards Maaya. Kyouya had no idea why, but he felt a wave of anger and jealousy pass over him as Jack said that. This was ridiculous, he shouldn't care at all who Maaya dated, but for some strange reason he did. Was it that he liked Maaya as more than a friend? Impossible, he didn't have time for a girlfriend, he was busy and this was Tamaki's cousin he was thinking about, besides she didn't have time for a boyfriend, she was too focused on her schoolwork, art, music, and sports to think about having a relationship with anyone, let alone someone she'd met a few weeks ago.

"No," Maaya replied without a hint of a blush, "There is no me and CJ, there is an _Anna and CJ_, there's an Aaron and Bria, there's an Alex and Sabina, and a Caleb likes Tyler and Tyler likes Caleb, but they're too stupid to tell each other, and there is a me and nobody. You know I don't have time or an interest in boys at the moment." Kyouya felt a rush of relief when he hear her say that, but it was followed with disappointment when he heard that last sentence , he known it was true, but hearing it was worse because now he couldn't say he didn't know for sure. She turned to Kyouya, "And just so you know, Conner and Caleb are friends of ours that go to St. Judith's with us so you'll be seeing a lot of them, they're notorious for their pranks and practical jokes; it's quite funny, really."

"OK, OK, I get it. You know I was just joking around," Jack said. "What did those other people have to do with my remark though?"

"She's referring to the giant love circle octagon thing from ninth grade. The basic gist was Aaron liked Bria, Bria liked Conner, Conner liked Caleb's little sister Anna, Anna liked Conner's friend Alex, Alex liked our friend Sabina, Sabina thought she liked Caleb, and Caleb, being our other gay friend, likes Tyler. Now it's all straightened out and the confusing circle thing is over," Rina explained, only calling Caleb gay for Kyouya's sake. Cale wasn't listening; he was too busy concentrating on his coloring.

"Ah, okay," Jack replied, understanding now.

"Festival, what festival?" Kyouya asked, curious to know what they were talking about.

"Festival, oooo, are we going this year?" Cale asked, bouncing in excitement.

"Yes, of course, we go every year," Rina replied, ruffling Cale's hair.

"The festival we're referring to is the Christmas festival that occurs every year in the old cathedral. It's this huge event that goes on for a week, there are a few acting groups made up of kids and people from the community and the choruses perform, there are a ton of bands and groups that perform. It's a lot of fun because you can try all this Christmas food from other nations and stuff during the food fair. There's a festival for every season and the winter one just sort of became the Christmas one too," Maaya explained.

"Yeah, and it's a lot of fun! Daddy buys me all these presents like chocolate and there's these really funny plays, and good music, it's a blast! Then Aunt Elise and Auntie Lisa's families come over on the twenty-third and we all exchange gifts after seeing the play and eating dinner. And then it's Christmas Eve and Santa comes, giving people even more gifts!" Cale exclaimed, a smile lighting up his face as he explained about their holiday traditions.

"Do all the little kids still believe in Santa?" Kyouya asked, wondering if anyone other than Cale knew.

"Yep, Gabe and Cole are seven so they have slight doubts, but are still pretty sure Santa's real," Maaya replied. She then stood up as an announcement came on saying that train 425 from London had arrived at Platform 5.

"Let's go, Platform 5 is just over there," Rina said as Maaya picked Cale up and put him on her shoulders so his hands rested on her head. Cale smiled gleefully and to Kyouya's surprise, Maaya didn't seem to mind the added weight. Jack put the coloring books and crayons back in Ree's bag and gave it to her. They walked down to the platform to wait. Soon they saw Tamaki gesturing widely as he spoke words they couldn't hear, Haruhi was looking around curiously, the twins were laughing presumably at some prank, while Mori was carrying a smiling Hunny on his shoulders. Tamaki soon caught site of Kyouya leaning against a pillar and ran over to him, squeezing him in a death hug.

"Kyouya, mon ami! It's so good to see you!" he cried out in Japanese. Since Jack, Maaya, and Rina were all fluent in it, they had no trouble understanding him, but Cale he wasn't sure about. Then Tamaki saw Maaya and Rina as Maaya set Cale on the ground and grabbed Ree, spinning her around 

before doing the same to Maaya. (A/N: Note the following conversation takes place in Japanese, but I'm not fluent and don't want to create the hassle of making my readers read stupid footnotes.)

He went to hug Jack, but he held up a hand and said, "Hug me and I'll break your legs," just as everyone else caught up.

"But…but...but…Mommy, Jack's being mean!" he cried, looking for a corner to hide in.

"No, that's just the way he is, Jack's not a very huggy person," Cale replied, standing next to Jack and holding his hand.

"Oh, who is this adorable little boy?!" Tamaki exclaimed in delight as the Host Club and everyone watched.

"Has he suffered any head-trauma in the past few years? Any memory losses you can recall?" Maaya asked the Host Club, to which they shook their heads. "No? Then you're a baka and have no excuse, this our cousin, Cale, he was two when he last saw you. Remember? My father's brother, Sam's, son? " she said to Tamaki.

"Tama-chan doesn't remember me?" Cale asked, his eyes brimming with tears as he realized what was being said. It surprised Kyouya that he knew Japanese, perhaps Sam had taught him when he was younger.

"Of course!" Tamaki cried, realization dawning on him as he remembered, "How could I forget such an innocent and sweet child!" And with that, he grabbed Cale into his arms and hugged him fiercely.

"Well, now that that's done with, shouldn't we all introduce ourselves and get acquainted?" Jack suggested as he hoisted Cale up onto his shoulders. And so they all introduced themselves and after piling everyone's luggage onto a few buggies, they walked to the car into the heavily falling snow. They all piled in, Cale was forced to sit on Rina's lap but neither minded, and somehow Maaya and Jack managed to fit everyone's baggage into the limited trunk space. As Maaya drove with Haruhi sitting next to her and Jack at the window, Kyouya wondered how everyone was going to react when they met all of Maaya's friends and family. It was surely going to be an interesting Christmas break now that the Host Club had arrived.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Sorry that this took so long to write, but it's the longest chapter so far, more than twice the length of the others since a lot more happened and Kyouya and Maaya start getting a little closer. I'm sorry that this is progressing rather slowly, but that's just how it is. However, Maaya and Kyouya's relationship should pick up soon. Lastly, I would like to give credit for the love octagon circle thing to my best friend, Tori, she came up with it and I used it with her permission. Also, she came up with the ideas for a few of the scenes in the upcoming chapters. THANKS TORI!

* * *

The ride had been interesting, Haruhi had observed everything with wide and curious eyes as Tamaki babbled on about Japan and how he'd missed him and his cousins, the twins were complaining about the lack of space although the car was really quite comfortable even with eleven people in it, and Mori was silent as ever as Hunny-sempai rambled about cake and desserts. Kyouya just observed Maaya's driving, she had some classical music playing softly and kept her eyes on the road as Haruhi asked her about England and her interests. She was clearly skilled at driving and completely at ease, even with ten other people in the car.

When they got to the house though, that was another matter. Elly was running by with something clutched to her stomach and Avery could be heard yelling at her from upstairs. Elly had curly, dark brown hair and light brown eyes. She was thin, slightly muscular like most everyone, and a star on the track team. "Geez, Elly what did you do, steal Avery's camera?" Jack asked as she dashed past, her dark hair fanning out behind her.

She nodded in reply, "Yeah, don't tell him I went outside, though!" she said before dashing out the door.

Maaya looked at Rina and slapped hands with her, clearly they weren't going to tell Avery anything. "Yes!" they screamed in unison. "Our step-brother Avery is obsessed with his camera, he always has it on him, it's like permanently duct taped to his hand, so we always try to steal it. Elly actually managed to hide it on April Fool's Day this past year, it was so funny, he was flipping out the entire day," Maaya explained before going into the process of leading everyone to their rooms and explaining the layout of the house. While they'd been talking, the maids had already taken up everyone's luggage. After that, everyone had gone down to eat dinner, it was amusing.

They had a huge array of food, from Italian spaghetti with meatballs and sauce to California rolls and sushi. Haruhi was gazing with wonder at all the food, and somehow Maaya had managed to find out Haruhi had never gotten to try the otoro she so wanted to and had supplied it. Hunny-sempai was happy about all the cake while Tamaki was getting Maaya and Rina confused, their plan had worked. Everyone but Tamaki could tell them apart, it was really easy, Maaya's eyes were more mysterious while Rina's showed more of her emotions and Maaya always laughed louder and took things more heavily than Ree. Hikaru and Kaoru were talking to Iris and Ally, intrigued that two twins that looked and acted so differently were so close. They were also impressed that most of the twins there were fraternal and could be easily told apart, except for Fred and George. As a side note, Avery had spent the whole day looking for Elly, but hadn't found her until dinner and she refused to tell him where she hid the camera. (Kyouya knew from Elly telling Maaya and Ree though that it was in the top drawer of his dresser, the one place he'd never look because it was so simple and obvious.)

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!! IT'S THE DEVIL TWINS RE-INCARNATED!!" Tamaki screamed upon seeing Fred and George with their fiery red hair, devilish green eyes, Fred's glasses, and supposedly innocent manner. Fred and George just shrugged in confusion at each other while Maaya and Rina burst out laughing.

"Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru would have to be dead for them to be reincarnated," Haruhi calmly pointed out as Kyouya smirked, Hunny ate his cake, Mori sat in silence, Hikaru and Kaoru smiled evilly, and Maaya and Rina laughed. Kyouya loved to hear Maaya laugh, she didn't do it as often as you'd think, but when she did it was beautiful, like bells ringing and the sound of wind chimes.

"Hi, I'm James Frederick, but everyone calls me Fred," Fred said as he and George walked up to the Host Club after dinner. They were all hanging out and talking in a random sitting room, the same one Cale had fallen asleep in, and catching up with Maaya and Rina.

"And I'm Oliver George, but everyone calls me George or Ollie," George added as they stood next to each other, they were identical down to the freckle under their right eye and dressed exactly the same, the only difference was that Fred wore his glasses while George didn't need glasses. "What are your names?" Everyone introduced themselves and Hikaru and Kaoru grinned wickedly.

"Kaoru, we have some youngsters we could teach our act to," Hikaru suggested.

Tamaki gasped in horror, "Don't you twins dare destroy their innocence, you unscrupulous devils!"

"Well it's not much of our business since Fred and George aren't blood relatives of ours, but to do that, you'd have to get through their parents, and Val is _very_ protective of his children, and there's Devon, Gabriel, Raven, Aclarion, Avondale, Kaine, Chystal, Alex, Chris, Ariya, Maris, Ben, Caleb, Aranel, Alec, Elektra, Avery, Aaron, Kyprioth, Iris, Ally, Twilight, Adrian, Cole, Elly. After that you have to deal with Jack, Garrett, Murtagh, me, and Rina," Maaya said with an evil glint in her eye as she narrowed her eyes at Hikaru and Kaoru in warning. "We wouldn't like it very much if you destroyed their innocence." Kaoru and Hikaru shuddered and held onto each other in fear. Kyouya was impressed, Maaya really could be quite frightening when she wanted to be.

While this was going on, Fred and George had cocked their heads in confusion and looked at each other to the twins, to Maaya, and back to each other. "What innocence?" they asked at the same time, figuring it out that Tamaki had been referring to them, they were smart devils, especially for four-year-olds.

"Hmm, good point, Fred and George have very little innocence, they were born on April Fool's Day and delight in playing practical jokes on people, but in the terms of innocence you're referring to, then they're as innocent as newborns, so don't even think of teaching them anything like that," Rina said, her voice sharpening as she warned Hikaru and Kaoru.

"Maaya, it's not nice to threaten your guests, even if they are devil twins," Tamaki chided her gently, not realizing that he'd called Rina Maaya.

"And it's not nice to mix up you're twin cousins, she's not Maaya, I am," Maaya retorted.

"And you call yourself our cousin," Rina sighed, shaking her head in disappointment.

"Wha…but…but…how..what…when…" Tamaki sputtered in complete and udder confusion. Kyouya smirked, he'd been confusing them ever since they got in the car, which was their intention, but Kyouya had a feeling Maaya didn't like that Tamaki didn't know them as well as they thought he did. During this discussion, Fred and George quietly slipped away to go to sleep, they went to bed early because they woke up at four in the morning to see their dad leave and did that every day, they'd decided they would wake up at whatever age they were. Since they were four, they woke up at four, and when they were five they'd wake up at five until they started going to school and had to wake up at eight or so.

At this Hunny-sempai looked up, "Tama-chan, why can't you tell them apart? It's really easy, Rina-chan's eyes are a lighter blue than Aya-chan's. Also, Maaya laughs louder and is harder to read."

Everyone stared at him in surprise, Kyouya had been able to tell them apart, Mori-sempai didn't talk, Haruhi could tell everyone apart, and Hikaru and Kaoru were twins themselves so it was easy for them, but no one had expected Hunny-sempai to be that observant. The only ones not surprised were Mori, Haruhi, and Kyouya. Kyouya knew that Maaya and Rina didn't expect it to be that easy to tell them apart, well maybe Maaya did, her eyes were unreadable at the moment. Mori-sempai knew Hunny-sempai better than anyone and Haruhi knew Hunny-sempai was smarter than people gave him credit for.

"Wow, you're more observant than we gave you credit for, Hunny-sempai," Kaoru said in surprise.

"Well actually it's not that hard, usually Ree's hair is straight and wears contacts rather than glasses. Also, we normally dress differently and Ree's a lot more open to people than I am and it's easier to read her emotions than it is mine," Maaya explained to them calmly.

"Yeah, the only people that can actually read her emotions and know everything she's feeling besides me are Tyler and Ally," Rina added.

"Why?" Haruhi asked, blunt as always.

"Haruhi, my daughter, that's a very personal question you shouldn't ask of others," Tamaki scolded her, shocked she had been so forward.

"No, it's fine, I don't mind. It's harder for me to show my emotions because the only people I talked to that were my age were Rina and Tyler. We were always there for each other, so we became very close since there weren't any other kids our age in the neighborhood. Then after our parents died when we were eleven, we stayed with Sam and the only person that really understood exactly what I was going through was Rina so she and Jack were the only ones I could talk to. After the courts said that we couldn't live with Sam anymore because he wasn't a fit guardian, the only person that I had was Jack and after a year he went to college and I didn't see him that often, so I learned to depend on myself and figured that the less friends I had, the less pain I'd suffer when they left or died," Maaya said, surprising Kyouya by the depth and honesty of her answer. He'd never known why Maaya was more remote than 

Rina, but now he realized it was because Rina had always been with family and had had Tyler to talk to while Maaya had had no one and had to survive on her own until she befriended Iris and Ally.

"Oh, that must have been tough," Haruhi commented, understanding what Maaya had had to go through.

"It was, but I just made it harder on myself by not talking or befriending anyone for the first few months I was there. After I came back from school since Jack had called Sam to get me into St. Judith's so I could go to school with Ree and wouldn't be as alone, I was happier and it got better once I got to know Garrett and Avery and his siblings," Maaya replied, smiling fondly at the memory of when she'd first spoken to Garrett and Avery, they'd been so shocked Avery had fallen out of his chair.

"So, what are your school uniforms like? You've seen ours in the pictures Tamaki sent Kyouya to show you, but we never saw yours," Hunny-sempai asked suddenly to change the subject to a less personal one and relieve the tension.

"They're pretty much like yours, except the girls don't have to wear dresses and the coats have the St. Judith's crest on them. We have to wear a white dress shirt, the boys have to wear black ties while the girls' are plaid, black pants, a blue or red jacket, and black shoes," Rina replied, describing the uniforms as best she could.

"Also, the girls normally wear blue while the boys normally wear red jackets, it's like an unwritten rule the students came up with a while ago and the girls can wear either a short skirt with tights, a knee-length skirt, or a long skirt if they want, but most wear pants, it's more convenient. And in the summer we can wear tan shorts rather than pants," Maaya added.

"So you don't have to wear dresses or anything like that if you don't want to?" Haruhi asked.

"Yep, we wear shorts or pants most of the time, but there are a lot of girls that like to wear the short skirts, mostly no one wears the long ones," Maaya answered.

"Why do you have two different jacket colors?" Hikaru asked.

"Our school colors are red and blue, so I guess that's why and probably it was that girls wore red and boys wore blue back in the early 1920s when the school went co-ed and when it got less strict with keeping girls and boys separate, the school board figured it was stupid to make kids wear different jacket colors and to just let them decide," Rina added. Then Haruhi and Hunny-sempai started yawning, it wasn't late by England time, but was very late by Japan's since it was 9:00 p.m. in England and somewhere around 6:00 a.m. in Japan.

"It's late, or rather early by your time so you should get to bed," Maaya suggested and everyone agreed, so they all went to their rooms to sleep except for Kyouya who was used to the time change. He just read while Maaya painted and Rina composed her song for the flute and piano.

The next morning Kyouya woke up with a shocked jump. Someone had just dumped freezing cold water on him at four in the morning! By the sound of the giggles and the time, he guessed it was Fred and George, Maaya hadn't been joking when she warned him they were the worst practical jokers you'd ever meet and knew no bounds. Kyouya glared at them as he shivered involuntarily, they were standing one on each side of his bed and it was too dark to see who was who. By the light of the moon, they saw his "demon lord of low blood pressure" aura and felt the full force of the "Shadow King glare" for which he was notorious. The two twins rushed to each other's side, quaking with fear as they screamed, "Evil Shadow King! Mommy save us!!" and dashed to the door.

"Say," Fred said, "if Maaya's the evil Shadow Queen and Kyouya's the evil Shadow _King_, are they married?"

"I don't know, I don't think so, they don't look it and Kyouya doesn't have a wedding ring, neither does Maaya, she just has a silver one her mommy and daddy gave her a long time ago," George answered, luckily they were in their room by this time so Kyouya didn't hear, but Alec did. His room was near theirs since he was a light sleeper and could keep an eye on them, he'd heard them leave but had no idea what they were planning so he'd just let them go, figuring they were going to see Val off to work. He, Aclarion, and Avondale were taking a well deserved break from the hospital in London and worked the early shift at the local hospital with Aclarion while Avondale took the night shift to do blood work. Alec shook his head, he should have known they'd do something to Kyouya, he was exactly the type of person they loved to annoy, but he figured after what he heard about the "evil Shadow King" they wouldn't bug him again.

Kyouya sat on his bed shivering with cold, it was winter and there'd been a blizzard yesterday so it was freezing and the ground was covered with snow. (A/N: I don't know the weather in England except that it tends to rain a lot, so forgive me if I'm way off about the blizzards.) The water the twins had dumped on him was freezing cold and he was soaked through to the skin, as was his pillow, sheets, and mattress. He got up, flicked on the small lamp next to his bed and walked into the bathroom that was connected to his room. Kyouya, to say the least, was very, very angry. Not only had he been woken up at four in the morning, it was with freezing water, and he couldn't get revenge on the twins without the chance of ticking off Devon, their parents, Gabriel, or anyone else related to them. He took a long, hot, relaxing shower and hung his wet clothes to dry after putting on dry ones. He then sat down on the chintz armchair next to his bed and read, this time a random book he'd grabbed off the shelf. He was almost through the entire bookshelf and would have to go to the library on the third floor for more.

After a few hours, he got on his laptop, deleted a bunch of emails and pictures Tamaki had sent him of the Host Club events he'd organized and they'd done when he'd had to leave. The word around school was that he was on a trip to America to study abroad, probably his father had come up with it after he disappeared. Well, as long as no one guessed where he really was, he'd be fine. Kyouya just hoped his father wasn't going to find him, the Host Club was using the excuse of going to Hikaru and Kaoru's summer home just outside of London for Christmas break to come here. Haruhi hadn't wanted to come, but Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai had gotten her a passport while Hikaru and Kaoru paid for 

it. Kyouya had had it arranged for her father to go on a vacation to Fiji with a "friend" so he would let Haruhi go.

Kyouya sighed and stretched before getting up to get some breakfast, it was half past eight so Maaya and Rina were already gone. Kyouya cursed himself for not getting up to see them leave when he had the chance, he didn't know who drove them, or if they neglected the laws and droved themselves, or what. It was infuriating because he couldn't find anything and even though everyone was very open in this house and there were almost no secrets, they were very good at keeping them. When Kyouya came down and walked through the living room to the small kitchen, he saw Murtagh and Garrett giving Fred and George noogies as the four-year-olds protested and tried to squirm out of their grips, but failing utterly. "Let go! We didn't do nothing, honest!" George protested in a high pitched, whining voice.

"Never!" Murtagh cried with delight.

"AHHHHHHH!! Shadow King! Mommy!!" Fred and George screamed in unison, doubling their efforts to escape at the sight of Kyouya.

"What are you guys doing?" Kyouya asked, having no idea why Murtagh and Garrett were giving the young boys noogies.

"Getting revenge, they dumped water on us again, and Alec told us to since he heard them do something at four this morning. He's their uncle after all and in partially in charge of them, so we have to listen," Garrett explained, and with that, he and Murtagh let the twins go, to which they dashed off, wailing for their mother.

"Well now we can go eat breakfast," Murtagh said as he and Garrett watched the boys flee before going into the kitchen with Kyouya to eat. Kyouya was mystified, how had Alec known what his nephews were up to at four in the morning? He shook his head, this house was full of as many people as mysteries and secrets.

"See, Murtagh, I told you there was a reason Alec's room is next to Fred and George's," Garrett said as they ate, Kyouya was half listening as he flipped through a notebook someone had left on the table. It was Maaya's, he recognized her handwriting.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you don't have to tell me every year. Geez, Garrett, what kind of idiot do you think I am?" Murtagh asked, pretending to be hurt and offended.

"I never said I thought you were an idiot, although it did take you a while to realize you like Rina," Garrett said. Kyouya read the poems, they were really good, he couldn't believe she had so much talent; she could paint, draw, play beautifully, and write. Was there anything she couldn't do?

A few moments later, the Host Club came down to eat, surprised to see Kyouya up already. "Kyouya-kun, what are you doing up so early? Don't you usually sleep in when you can?" Tamaki asked as he sat down next to his friend.

"Yes, but I've been waking up earlier than I normally do, otherwise you might miss something in this house," he replied mysteriously as he ate. Maids soon brought some food for the Host Club, it was all high-class Japanese breakfast food.

"Hmm, Maaya must have told Ian, Angie, and Greg to make you guys some Japanese food," Murtagh observed, his black hair falling slightly in his face. He ran his fingers through his hair to shove it back.

"Yep, she's pretty considerate like that," Garrett replied.

"Where are Aya-chan and Ree-Ree-chan?" Hunny-sempai asked curiously as he ate a little breakfast and mainly sweets that had been provided in consideration of his preference for sweets. Garrett and Murtagh burst out laughing at the nicknames he'd given them.

"What's so funny?" Haruhi asked.

"Nothing, it's just that the only people who can get away with calling Maaya and Ree that are Cale, Sam, and Angie," Garrett explained

"Why?" Mori-sempai asked, shocking everyone by speaking.

"Well Cale is five, Sam is their uncle, and Angie has been working for their family since they were born, I think. It just annoys them when people use such childish names as they call them, and their mother would call them that when they were sick. Also, I'm pretty sure Justin and Zach used to tease them about it until Jack beat them up," Garrett replied.

"Oh, than what should I call them?" Hunny-sempai asked.

"Just Maaya and Rina, that's what we've been calling them. Well you could get away with calling Maaya Maay instead and Rina doesn't care if you call her Ree or Rina," Murtagh replied.

"Oh, ok!" Hunny-sempai said.

"Where are my beloved nieces, this fine morning?" Tamaki asked brightly.

"Ok, first of all Maaya and Ree are your cousins, not nieces. They told me to tell you that whenever you call them your nieces. And secondly, we can't tell you where they are. They leave every morning and get back around 9:30 or ten. It's just this thing they go to, you'll find out eventually, in a few days actually, but we can't tell you more than that," Garrett answered. At this Tamaki gasped in horror and dashed to hide in a corner of the room.

"Yay! Maaya and Rina sent my lord to the corner without being present!" Hikaru and Kaoru cried in delight while Haruhi shook her head.

"Does he do that often?" Murtagh asked, staring at Tamaki with wonder.

"Only when Haruhi or someone does or says something to upset him," Kyouya answered.

"OK then." Murtagh replied just as Cole and Gabriel came in, followed by Devon.

"Hey guys," Devon said as she sat down with Cole and Gabriel.

"Hey, Garrett," Cole said as he waited for his eggs. He had spiky black hair, green eyes, and was thin and tall for his age. Gabriel was the same height as Cole, but with brown hair and blue eyes.

"Elbows off the table Cole, Gabe," Devon chastised the two boys.

"Hai!" they replied in unison, immediately putting their hands in their lap.

"Yes, Cole?" Garrett asked as if their conversation hadn't been interrupted.

"The festival's in a few days right?" Cole asked, clearly excited at the thought.

"Yeah, it starts tomorrow and lasts till the twenty-third, but the plays and performances don't start for a few more days, it's just food and trinkets at the moment," Garrett answered.

"Festival?" Haruhi asked as Tamaki perked up at the word, retreating from the famed corner of woe.

"The Winter Festival, this town has one every year. There's also a spring, summer, and fall one. Spring to celebrate winter ending, summer just because it's summer, and fall to celebrate the crops being harvested. The winter festival sort of just turned into a holiday celebration. There's ethnic food booths, trinkets and ornaments people have made, clothes, blankets quilts and all sorts of things. Then three of the nights there are plays put on by different groups of kids from the community while the last two are just performances by different people," Devon explained to the Host Club.

"It's a lot of fun, we go every year since it's free, but they accept donations which are split evenly among local charities and most people donate something," Garrett explained before excusing himself from the table since he was finished.

"Oh, cool, do they have cake?" Hunny-sempai asked.

"Yeah, all different kinds and flavors, plus there's cookies and just about one type of dessert for every country," Murtagh explained.

"Yay!" Hunny-sempai cried in delight, causing Murtagh to chuckle and Devon to grin. They sat their talking before eventually leaving the table to roam the house until Maaya and Rina came home.

"Hey guys," Maaya said as she and Ree sat down on a couch in the living room that the Host Club had migrated to.

"My nieces, you've arrived home safe! You shouldn't make your uncle worry like that, disappearing so early and not letting anyone tell me where you were!" Tamaki cried, hugging them both.

"First of all, we're not your nieces, and you're not our uncle, you're our cousin," Maaya said in annoyance.

"And secondly, our _real_ uncle did know where we were and wasn't worried at all," Rina finished, causing Tamaki to hide in his corner of woe to grow mushrooms.

"Where were you really, though?" Haruhi asked, curious as always.

"It's a secret," Rina replied.

Maaya nodded in agreement, "You'll find out soon enough though," she added. "So, does anyone wanna go outside for a snowball fight? There's at least a foot of snow there."

"Sure," Hikaru and Kaoru said simultaneously as the rest of the Host Club agreed. They spent the next few minutes asking everyone in the house if they wanted to have a snowball fight and all the teenagers agreed, as did Fred, George, Cale, Gabriel, and Cole. Katelyn decided to watch with Aariyon to make sure no one got hurt. There were a few benches by the makeshift soccer field which they sat on as Katelyn knitted a blue blanket for her soon to be born child and Aariyon just watched.

It was crazy, everyone was running around, dodging behind hurriedly made forts and the trees on the border of the woods. During the confusion, Kyouya managed to slip away back to his room, someone had managed to change the sheets to dry them and dry the mattress. He turned his laptop back on and started trying to find out whatever it was Maaya and Rina did in the mornings when they were out. But no matter how much he tried, he just couldn't figure it out, there was nothing…unless they were buying presents for everyone and wanted to keep it a secret! That must be it, Kyouya decided, they were buying gifts and didn't want anyone to find out. He leaned back, satisfied that he'd figured out their secret, but something kept nagging at him, telling him it might be something else. Kyouya shook his head, there was nothing else it could be. He started calculating the expenses the Host Club had spent and think of ways to expand the budget and make more money so he wouldn't have to worry as much. Just as he was brainstorming ideas, a snowball hit his window, making him jump in surprise. He glances out, and through the mushy mess sliding down his window, he saw everyone running about except for Maaya and Rina. It was obvious that Maaya had thrown the snowball, and was gathering up another one in her hand.

"Get down here, dummkopf, or else!" she yelled loudly, preparing to through another one. Kyouya had no desire to go down and get all soaked in the snow, rolling around like a fool, and knew that her throwing a snowball at his window couldn't do anything to him. What would she do, come inside and throw one at him? That was absurd, on second thought, he wouldn't put it past her or the four-year-old devils. He opened the window to tell her he wasn't when the snowball in her hand hit him square in the face just as he opened his mouth.

"I don't want to hear any excuses, scheissekopf! Just get down here before I come up and make you!" she yelled louder, drawing the attention of everyone else. Kyouya just stared at her in shock for a few seconds before wiping the snow off his face and slamming the window shut. He put a pair of pants 

over the jeans he was wearing, a coat, hat, and gloves before going outside with a pocket notebook and pencil in his back pocket. He was planning on disappearing and just writing something, after all, Maaya hadn't said he _had_ to take part in the snowball fight.

As soon as he walked outside, Cale ran up and hugged him, wrapping his thin arms around Kyouya's waist. He just stood there, unsure what to do, so he just patted Cale's head and shoulders until the fiver-year-old let go. "Why didn't you come out earlier? You really upset Maaya, she usually never threatens anyone until she's known them for at least a few months," Cale asked, looking up at him with curiosity.

"I don't really like snowball fights," he stated matter-of-factly, but was intrigued. So when she threatened someone, it meant she liked them? That made some sense since she smacked someone upside the head at least once a day.

"Why not? They're fun, you can actually push people in the snow and hit them with snowballs! Maaya and Ree say that's one of the reasons Winter's their favorite season after Spring," Cale said before running off to go play without a word of warning. Kyouya looked at Cale's back in surprise, he'd just found out two things he hadn't known before. For some reason he couldn't find anything about Maaya and Rina on his computer other than their class records (straight A's and one week of detention once earlier that year) and the occasional news article on their family, such as their mother's violinist debut in London, her death, their father's death, and the announcement of Maaya and Jack returning to England in the local paper.

Kyouya walked toward the battle field, not paying attention to where he was going as he thought, and was dragged down behind a snow mound by someone. He looked up to see Maaya's head above his, her brown hair falling around her face from out of her hat as her breath ghosted on his cheek. He started to feel dizzy without knowing why and was losing track of where he was or what was going on fairly quickly, but Maaya's sharp voice brought him back. "Are you crazy, walking unprepared into a snowball fight?! First you disappear without warning, then you walk right into the middle of a snow battle with God knows how many people looking as if you're in dreamland or whatever! Get a grip on reality, man," she whispered angrily at him before departing suddenly and throwing a snowball right at Kyprioth's head. After that he entered the fight, learning how to form proper snowballs since this was actually his first _real_ snowball fight. His father had forbidden them, saying that sledding and snowball fights were for commoners.

It was almost fun, he reluctantly admitted to himself. Sure, his outer layer of clothing was covered in snow and some was falling down his shirt, but he was getting good at hitting people and Tamaki was running around screaming like an idiot, it was enough to make anyone fall down with laughter and Maaya was smiling at him a lot. For some strange, unidentifiable reason seeing her smile at him made him feel warmer and happier inside. She didn't have her glasses on, she'd put contacts in for safety reasons and her face was flushed from running around. The fight was truly crazy, it was everyone for themselves, only the younger kids got help from their siblings, or in Cale and Cole's case cousins, and no one showed any mercy. After a while, he had no idea how much time had passed as he hadn't taken 

his watch, Kyouya snuck away to a small clearing in the woods he'd found a few days ago and sat on a bench. He noticed that there seemed to be benches randomly strewn throughout the property. He pulled out his notebook and pencil and started writing, what he wasn't quite sure, he was just letting the words flow out of his pencil, occasionally scratching out a word or phrase and replacing it with a better fit one.

Kyouya looked up as he heard someone stumble into the clearing. It was Maaya, her hat was lopsided and barely hanging on her head, her cheeks were bright red, and her face seem to be glowing from all the running around. She was breathing heavily and wasn't paying attention to where she was walking now that she'd escaped the intense snow battle. She gripped the bench table in a desperate attempt to keep upright, but failed utterly and started to fall, her eyes closing from exhaustion. Kyouya dropped his notebook and pencil, jumping up to catch her, but her weight pulled him down with her and he ended up falling on top of her, their legs entwined and his hands in the snow to keep from crushing her. Maaya's eyes were closed, her face covered with sweat, and her full lips were bright pink, looking perfectly kissable, Kyouya noticed. _Kissable? Where did that come from? If I didn't know myself better, I'd think I'd fallen for her,_ Kyouya thought to himself, surprised at where his thoughts had led him. Maaya's eyes opened and she blinked up at him in surprise and confusion, wondering how he'd ended up on top of her.

Kyouya straightened up and hastily got off of her, sitting beside her in the snow to make sure she was all right. She slowly sat up, holding her head in her hands as she screwed her eyes shut, trying to deal with the pain. "Oh, God, not another one," she muttered before opening her eyes and pulling a bottle of painkillers out of her jeans pocket and popping two into her mouth.

"Maaya, are you OK?" Kyouya asked, reaching to touch her shoulder, but deciding against it at the last minute.

"Yeah, I just keep getting these headaches and I feel really tired all of a sudden. I guess I haven't been getting enough sleep and it's finally starting to catch up with me," she said as she got up and brushed the snow off her jeans and coat.

"Are you sure? Maybe you should see a doctor," he said, concerned. He didn't know why, but for some strange reason, Kyouya thought that it was something worse than just sleep deprivation.

"No, I'm fine, it's nothing, I've just been having trouble getting to sleep lately, I'll go to bed early tonight," Maaya assured him with a smile as she sat down on the bench. "I just need a break from the snowball fight, it's getting pretty crazy out there. Now that all the little kids have gone inside along with Katelyn and Aariyon, everyone's gotten pretty out of control."

"Yeah, I noticed it was getting a little hectic," he commented, sitting down on the opposite of the table.

"You think that was bad? You haven't seen anything, it's three times as worse now, I'm not kidding. Then Aaron grabbed Aranel and they started kissing randomly until Avery hit them with a 

snowball and told them to get a room," she said with a shake of her head, clearly she'd decided to forget the incident in which he'd wound on top of her, and Kyouya figured that was the best. "We should turn in, it's getting pretty cold out now," she suggested and he nodded in agreement. They ventured out onto the hectic snowball fight battle ground and everyone turned in for the day, deciding they'd had enough of the cold outdoors for the day.

* * *

dummkopf- German word for 'stupid head'

scheissekopf- German for 'shit head'


	9. Chapter 9

Kyouya sighed, he was lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, but all he could think about was Maaya. He was worried, that was the second time she'd fainted in just a few days and her headaches seem to be getting worse and occur more frequently. He hated to admit it, but he was worried about her. She wouldn't talk to a doctor and insisted she was fine even though she wasn't. Kyouya sighed, knowing Maaya was too stubborn to listen to anyone and grabbed a book to distract him from his thoughts. And yet, he couldn't help but wonder why he was so concerned about Maaya, she was constantly on his mind and he was annoyed that he had no idea where she went in the mornings still. He had a hunch, but nothing to back it up. All these thoughts kept running around his head, making it impossible to sleep or even concentrate on the book in his hands. After a long while, he finally managed to get to sleep.

For the first time in a long while, Kyouya actually found himself dreaming. It was basically a recurrence of what had happened between him and Maaya in the clearing, but instead of getting off of her, he leaned forward and kissed her. It was short, sweet and romantic, and luckily (or unluckily if u see it that way) for Kyouya he'd completely forgotten the dream by the time he awoke. It seemed that his subconscious was trying to tell him he liked Maaya but failing miserably.

The morning past by slowly as it always did, but he learned something new each morning when he sat with someone and talked to them with the Host Club. It turned out Maaya and Rina were going to be coming home a couple hours later than usual, supposedly to buy Christmas presents for everyone. The great mystery was wear they hid them, nobody knew and no matter what they couldn't find them.

"Where would they hide them? The only room off-limits is Sam's office, his room, and Maaya's art room to some people," Ky asked, they were all discussing it, but no one knew. Kyprioth had spiky black hair, bright green eyes, and was shorter and stockier than his slim, lean brother Avery.

"No one knows. The only hunch we have is that the guards hide them somewhere in some secret compartment or false floor," Adrian, said. He was tall, muscular, had dark hair and dark eyes.

"Guards? What guards?" Tamaki asked, immediately glancing around and hiding behind Mori-senpai.

"The guards that watch over the house. You didn't know Sam had them? There's twenty guards in all, five patrol the grounds during the day and ten do at night to make sure no one tries to break in or anything. Also, they have five Rottweilers and five German Shepherds on duty most of the time," Twi explained. "Although, you have to wonder why Sam hired guards. I mean, they don't follow Maaya ad Rina around or anything, but maybe that's because they'd freak if they did. Then there's the ten-foot gate topped with spikes surrounding the property, motion detectors, cameras observing every inch of the house and grounds. Sam is insanely paranoid it seems," he added.

"Yeah and it's not like Maaya and Rina need personal body guards, last time I checked they could more than handle themselves. The only time Maaya's actually gotten hurt is during soccer, karate, or swimming," Ky replied.

"Don't forget the ice incident when they were five and the car accident in tenth grade," Jack said as he walked in and sat down in an unoccupied armchair.

"What incident?" Kyouya asked, he hadn't found anything on the ice incident, but had read about the accident.

"Well when I was twelve, and Maaya and Ree were five, we were skating on this frozen stream that led to a pond outside our house. The pond was about two meters deep and roughly fifteen meters in circumference. Mum and Dad were further down the stream with Justin and Zach, Ree, Maay, and I were on the edge of the pond, and my friend Roy was just where the stream and pond met. Suddenly Maaya tripped and went sliding into the middle of the pond. We didn't know if it was frozen enough to skate on so she was going to inch forward when her left skate went straight through the ice and the rest of her followed. I took off my skates and jumped in after her while Rina went to the edge and started bashing through the ice so we could get out and Roy went for help. We got out and Maaya wouldn't wake up so Dad had to give her mouth to mouth; she woke up, but it was the longest three minutes of my life," Jack explained. "And ever since then she's sort of had this fear of ponds since no matter if it's frozen solid she keeps thinking it might break and she'll fall under again."

"Wow," Hunny-senpai whispered in shock.

"What happened in the car accident then?" Hikaru asked, curious as to what happened.

"I got three broken ribs, a broken collar bone, four broken knuckles, my tibia broke in three places, and my fibula fractured entirely in my left leg," Maaya said, walking in the room with Rina and sitting down on the floor against the couch. It seemed they enjoyed sitting there most. Kyouya's heart skipped a bit when he saw her and she sat near him. It seemed his heart did all manner of things around her since the 'incident' in the clearing.

"And I got a few cuts, bruised bones, and a broken wrist, but Maaya took most of the damage," Rina added.

"How'd it happen?" Haruhi asked. By this time, Tamaki had been horrified by the thought of his 'nieces' being hurt and ran over to comfort them, but Maaya just scooted away.

"Drunk driver hit our car when we were coming back from the train station for Christmas break last year. I had to get surgery on my fibula and had to have temporary titanium pins and rods put in so it would grow straight since it broke into five different pieces. Then I had to wear a cast for three months and a boot for another month until I could walk and I couldn't run for a month after the boot came off, it sucked," Maaya said, huffing in annoyance as she remembered not being able to do any sports.

"Whoa," Kaoru and Hikaru said at the same time.

"Yep, but oh well. I've had my fair share of broken bones: three toes, my left foot, my right ankle, both thumbs, my right middle finger and pinky, my left index and ring finger, my left wrist, both 

sides of my collar bone, and that's it…I think, at least I'm pretty sure," Maaya said nonchalantly, as if she didn't mind counting off the numerous bones she'd broken.

"That's surprising since you're not the least bit clumsy," Adrian said.

"I know, most of them were from soccer, fencing, or karate. The only injuries from swimming were tendonitis and a dislocated shoulder," Maaya explained.

"What level are you in karate?" Hunny-senpai asked in curiosity.

"Maaya and I are third-degree black belts while Jack is a fifth-degree black belt. In another year we'll be able to train for our fourth-degree since you have to be eighteen for some weird reason," Rina explained.

"Yep, just one year to go and we've been third-degrees for the past four years, it's annoying," Maaya added, clearly irritated at the fact that she had to wait. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I need to finish something," Maaya said and left the room with Rina. Jack soon left, saying he needed to finish a paper for one of his classes while Twi went to go do his studies with Ally. Avery, Adrian, and Ky quickly when to get ready for another snow fight between themselves. Soon everyone drifted off to do one thing or another, with Hunny and Mori hunting for sweets, Hikaru and Kaoru looking for something to entertain themselves, and Tamaki trailing Haruhi, much to her protest. Kyouya sighed, the room was now quiet and he relaxed against the couch for a minute. He'd finished the forms he needed to fill out and his paper to apply for a scholarship and sent it out. Sam said they'd reply pretty fast since it was so close to the next term. When Kyouya had asked if the school board normally accepted scholarship applications this late and Sam had said no, but he'd managed to pull a few strings. It seemed that Maaya's family was very well connected.

Kyouya opened his eyes and got up, preparing to get a sandwich for lunch since it was already one o'clock when he saw a black notebook with a green pixie-like fairy on the front on a table next to the couch. He knew it was Maaya's, he'd seen her drawing in it a lot lately. Kyouya picked it up and flicked through it; amazed once again by the talent she had. There were various drawings of all sorts of things and people, the first of him as he slept in the car. This surprised him, Maaya had sketched him the first time she'd met him, and it was quite a likeness. She did a few of just rooms with no people or of a chair or something, but mostly she drew people and animals. Kyouya wondered what to get Maaya for Christmas when an idea struck him. (A/N: I'm so evil, I'm not going to tell you his idea until the Christmas Day chapter! Mwahahahaha!)

He was just walking out the room when he heard someone call his name from the other end through the door, why there was a random door at that end of the room he didn't know. Kyouya turned toward the door and saw Maaya walk through it, she was just a foot away and his heart rate quickened. He mentally shook himself, why was his heart speeding up; it was just Maaya standing in front of him. Just as she opened her mouth to say something, the door burst open again, knocking into her and sending her sprawling onto him. Kyouya didn't have time to react or even cry out as she fell on top of him, Tamaki staring in shock from the doorway. "Maaya, what are you doing to Mommy?!" he screamed 

in astonishment and wonder. Kyouya's heart was thumping loudly against his chest and it was a wonder nobody else could hear it.

Maaya quickly got off Kyouya, a slight blush painting her cheeks as she stood up and brushed herself off. "Well, I was in my room when I remembered I'd left my sketchbook in here and I was just about to ask Kyouya if it was in here when you slammed the door open so it caught my foot and tripped me; inadvertently causing me to fall on him. I wasn't doing anything, it's all _your _fault," she explained calmly before picking up her sketchbook off the floor where it had fallen after being knocked out of Kyouya's hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me," Maaya said as she left the room quickly and dashed up to her room.

Kyouya took off his glasses and cleaned them on a cloth from his pocket before putting them back on. He promptly left the room without a word to Tamaki, who'd been trying to find Haruhi after she escaped him to study and ask Jien about the British legal system. Tamaki glanced around, thoroughly confused before walking away in search of his daughter, the recent event slipping completely from his mind.

He sighed, after leaving the room, Kyouya had fled to his room to think. His heart was beating rapidly and he was finding it hard to breathe. Every time he even thought of Maaya, he felt happier and he loved seeing her smile. He shook his head, he couldn't feel this way, he couldn't fall for her. _Get a hold of yourself! She'd your best friend's younger cousin who isn't interested in having a relationship with anyone, _Kyouya thought to himself. He'd been thinking about her more frequently and was finding it harder to keep his emotions in check. His mask had starting slipping after a while, but since the Host Club came it was back on. After all that was the Kyouya they knew, the cold, distant unfeeling one. Now the mask was far more difficult to maintain, especially around Maaya, and Kyouya could feel his emotions getting the best of him. He sighed and walked into his bathroom, deciding to take a long shower to clear his head.

Kyouya walked downstairs to the kitchenette to find Maaya making a sandwich. Two slices of bread were out, there was cheese, turkey, and she was cutting up a tomato. "Hi, Kyouya," she said, glancing up as he walked in the room. Her hair was pulled away from her face, but most of it still hung down; Kyouya found he liked her hair best that way, he could see her face but her hair was still loose.

"Hi," he replied, sitting down on a stool at the countertop.

"Do you want a sandwich?" she asked as she finished slicing the tomato and started to assemble her sandwich.

"No thanks, I'm fine," he replied, he wasn't hungry anymore.

"Okay," she said, grabbing a plate and sitting down next to him. There was something in the air hanging between them, an awkwardness that hadn't been there before. Kyouya knew it was because she'd tripped and fallen on him earlier. The thought made him angry; it was all Tamaki's fault, if he hadn't burst through the door then without any thought to who might be on the other side, she 

wouldn't have tripped and their relationship wouldn't be so awkward now. _Relationship?_, he thought to himself,_ Since when do we have a relationship? We're just friends, nothing more. I don't feel anything like that for her, she's just a good friend._ Just as Kyouya was getting lost in his thoughts, he heard a crash and saw Maaya falling to the floor, her eyes closed. He jumped off his stool and caught her just before her head hit the tile floor. Kyouya sighed with relief, but it was short lived when he saw the blood trailing from her nose.

_Oh God, no! No, no, no!_ Kyouya was panicking and he didn't know what to do, sure he knew about medicine and treatments, but never had he had to deal with a bleeding, unconscious person before! "Somebody help! Avondale, Val, somebody!" he screamed in desperation as he took off his jacket and pressed it against her nose to try and stop the bleeding. Kyouya heard footsteps running down the stairs and saw Sam, Jien, Avondale (who was off shift), and Avery come running in.

"What happened?" Avondale asked as he sat down next to Maaya, who's head was resting on Kyouya's lap, and pulled out a flashlight, checking her eyes and breathing.

"I don't know, she just fainted and her nose started bleeding," Kyouya said, he was getting increasingly worried.

"Her heart rate sounds normal and her pupils are dilating," Avondale said as he took the jacket away from Maaya's nose, blood was literally pouring out of it. "This is not good, Jien, get the car now. We need to get her to the hospital immediately." Avondale picked Maaya up and Avery gave him a clean rag while carrying at least ten others in his hand. He held it to her nose and carried her to the car which Jien had somehow gotten already outside. Sam was surprisingly calm, but worried, while Avery was white as a ghost, and Kyouya felt like he was shaking. Soon the whole house knew what was going on and was following the black Cadillac to the hospital.

They rushed in, Avondale still carrying Maaya while an orderly ran up with a stretcher that he laid her on and they dashed down the hall, leaving the receptionist to usher everyone to the waiting room. Kyouya leaned against the wall, while Iris sat with her head in her hands next to him, Alec was standing next to him, Haruhi was calm, Hikaru and Kaoru were looked worried, Hunny-senpai was offering sweets to comfort people, Mori was stoic and silent as ever while Tamaki was freaking out. Kyouya stared at Cale, he was hugging Sam tightly as his father held him, Katelyn was just sitting there, while Fred and George were clinging to Alai, while Gabriel sat on Raven's lap and Cole was sitting with his mother. Nobody said anything, there was nothing to say; Maaya was in the hospital and no one knew what was wrong with her, nothing they said could change that.

After what seemed like forever to Kyouya, but was only forty minutes, Avondale came out with his clothes speckled with blood and his hair disheveled as if he'd run his hair through it several times. He looked relieved and tired, as if he was lacking sleep which he probably was. Aclarion showed up right behind him, his long hair tied back and a long doctors coat on. "Well?" Kyprioth asked, impatient to know the news, "Is Maaya going to die?"

"Yes," Avondale replied his face grave and serious, "Maaya is going to die." At this, everyone looked at him in shock and Tamaki began to freak out, but Kyouya wasn't listening to his babbling, he was falling into a dark abyss of despair. He couldn't imagine it, Maaya, dead, cold, and still; never to play the violin again, or soccer, or do anything of the things she loved, not to see that spark of intuition when she broke through his defenses, or hear one of her smart remarks would be a greater pain than he could bear. It was hell, Kyouya was in hell and felt like he was going to die himself. His chest constricted and he couldn't breathe, it was a wonder nobody had noticed. She couldn't be dying no, she couldn't die and leave him alone, not now that he'd just found her and the one place that felt like home. Suddenly a quote from _Wuthering_ _Heights_ came into his head, it was one that Maaya said was her favorite, it was when Catherine was talking to Nelly about Heathcliff "My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt everyone of them: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and _he_ remained, _I_ should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it." That was exactly how Kyouya felt about Maaya, he was in love with her, it had just taken him this long to realize it.

Just then, Alec pushed his shoulder to get his attention, dragging Kyouya out of his despairing thoughts. No one was staring at him, except Alec, he was staring at him with a worried look in his eyes and gestured to Avondale with his head. Avondale was talking again and it seemed only a second had passed, but it had felt like eternity. "Ky, I don't know how much time Maaya has left, because I have no idea how she's going to die or when," Avondale started._ What? What does this mean, he doesn't know? How could he not know!_ Kyouya thought angrily to himself. "She could get hit by a bus, or die of cancer when she's eighty. Maaya could die any number of ways and you would have to be a very good and accurate fortune teller to even attempt to see how or when she's going to die. She will die, just like the rest of us will, it's simply a fact of life," Avondale explained somberly, but with a twinkle in his eye. At this Alec and everyone else burst out laughing as they realized the joke; Ky stood there with his mouth open in shock, Tamaki stopped babbling, Haruhi was smiling, Hunny-senpai was jumping in joy, whilst Hikaru and Kaoru were grinning. Kyouya had never felt so happy in his life, Maaya wasn't going to die today, or anytime soon. He could jump for joy, he was so elated.

"YES! I KNEW IT!" Garrett shouted in joy, slapping hands with Avery in joy as they linked arms and started dancing in circles.

"You- you! How could you lie like that! That's just cruel!" Ky shouted in anger, his face turning red as he glared at Avondale in fury.

"I didn't lie, you asked if Maaya was going to die, and I told the truth. As I said before, everyone dies, it's simply a fact of life. If you had asked is Maaya going to die from an illness or whatever is wrong with her, I would have said no. It's not my fault you have no common sense or sense of humor," Avondale replied, smirking in triumph.

"Well, it's great that my niece isn't going to die anytime soon, but what's wrong with her?" Sam asked, rubbing Cale's back who'd been crying until Sam had explained that Avondale had been joking.

"Well, it appears she has a genetic illness that she inherited from her father," Aclarion started to explain, "It usually shows up a little earlier in adolescence at around the age of eleven or twelve, but could show up anywhere within the time frame of 11 to 20 years of age. That's probably why no one recognized the symptoms Maaya was suffering from, that and it's a very rare disease. The name of it is rather long and I'd rather not pronounce it, but we just refer to it as Kraler's Disease since he was the first to be diagnosed for it. The symptoms are usually frequent headaches, dizziness, fainting spells, and nose bleeds. What happens is the blood vessels in the brain started to wither and weaken, causing internal bleeding and hemorrhaging of the brain. This can lead to massive nosebleeds as Maaya suffered from, memory loss, possible brain damage, and if it isn't treated the patient could actually fall into a coma and die. However, there is a cure so we'll keep Maaya over tonight for observation and I'll take her home tomorrow morning at the end of my shift. We managed to stop the blood rushing from her nose and she hasn't lost enough for a transfusion, so she'll be perfectly fine by tomorrow."

"Yeah, I remember that, Dad had to take these pills every morning," Jack said in recollection.

"That's right, the cure is either a bi-monthly injection or taking pills every day. Each one costs the same, so it's up to Maaya's preference. We've given her a dose of the treatment so that she'll be fine for the next two weeks, that should give me enough time to get a prescription ordered in," Aclarion replied calmly as he pulled a pen out of his pocket and wrote something on the clipboard he was carrying.

"Can we go and visit her?" Rina asked him, her eyes hopeful.

"There's no reason why not, but she's a little weak so not too many of you at a time. I think that's all you need to know, so if you need something just ask for me," Aclarion said as Avondale showed them to Maaya's room. Jack, Ree, Sam, Cale, and Garrett went first while everyone else waited. Kyouya went in next with Avery, Iris, Ally, Elektra, Alec, and Ky. She was sitting up with a tank top on and an IV connected to her arm. Kyouya suddenly felt very nervous, now that he was aware of his feelings, he felt awkward and didn't know what to say.

"Hey guys," she said. Maaya looked restless as if she just wanted to bolt out the door rather than just lay there.

"How many times have you been in a hospital room?" Ally asked as she looked around it.

"More than I can count, back in my home town I broke so many bones that I had my own room," she joked as Avondale walked in.

"Now that you're awake, I'll just check how your bones have healed and Alcarion wants a blood sample just to be sure," he said as she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She was wearing a red tank top and shorts rather than the hospital gowns patients normally wore. Avondale prodded her shoulder and collar bone, then felt her ribs to make sure they were straight. After that he checked her left calf, which had a scar along the inside of it, Kyouya noticed.

"I don't think I'm ever going to over how big that scar is, Maaya," Avery said with a shake of his head.

"I know, but I get to see it every single day when I get dressed. I'm used to it, I've got quite a few scars," she said with a shrug of her shoulders as Avondale pulled out a syringe and put it to a vein in her right arm, filling it with her blood.

"What blood type are you, Maaya? Just for the record," Avondale asked as everyone talked and chatted before filing out so the Host Club could come in, but Maaya let Kyouya stay.

"I have AB blood," she replied calmly as Avondale cleaned the spot the needle had pierced her skin and put a band-aid on it. She swung back into bed as Tamaki flipped out at the sight of her in such scarce clothing and what she'd just said.

"You have AB blood?" Hikaru and Kaoru asked in horror as they glanced from her to Kyouya and back.

"Yeah, why is that such a big deal?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"That's the same blood type I have," Kyouya replied calmly.

"So? Why is everyone freaking out about that?"

"Everyone refers to me as the cold and untouchable Shadow King, so I guess they're scared of you now, just like they're scared of me," he replied with a smirk.

"That doesn't make any sense. I mean, just because I have the same blood type as you doesn't mean I act exactly like you and if you ask me, judging people by their blood type is stupid. That's like saying I'm not going to be friends with you because you have different color skin or something. I would have thought you guys were smarter than that. My mother had AB blood and she was the kindest person in the world, so that just proves your judgmental theory wrong," Maaya said calmly as everyone except Kyouya stared at her shock. She'd just blown their whole theory out of the water in about ten seconds.

They talked for a while, but eventually the nurse shoved them all out and they left. Kyouya smiled at how she'd dissolved the Host Club's theory without thinking about it. He was way in over his head and he knew, but he couldn't seem to care. Kyouya was falling more in love with her every moment he spent with her, now he just had to figure out a way to tell her; much easier said than done.

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Kralers Disease is not a real disease, I made it up, just so you know. I even looked it up online to make sure that it wasn't real. However, if you've read or seen the Diary of Anne Frank, he was a real person in that biography, even though that was not his real name for security reasons.


	10. Chapter 10

Hi, peeps and devoted fans. First off, I want to apologize for not updating for 4 STRAIGHT MONTHS! Honestly, why didn't someone send me a comment and remind me? The only excuse I have is that I got writer's block for a while, then ran out of good ideas and it got to the point where I lost interest and forgot about it. I'm just REALLY REALLY SORRY and know there's NO excuse for being that neglectful. But please don't hesitate to remind me if it's been a while since I've updated and you would like another chapter posted. Please try to phrase it nicely, if you're rude it'll just annoy me and make me take longer. I'm really, truly sorry and give you guys my sincerest apologies. Also, I want to thank you guys for reading my story and everything. Lastly, I just want to apologize to tell you I'm SUPER-EXTREMELY SORRY! As a request, it would make my day if a few of you could send me a review about my fanfic. (Hint: Reviews will probably help me write more faster.) I really want to thank my friend Tori for bugging me about this fanfic and getting me back into the swing of writing! Thanks T, I owe you one!

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Once they got back, everyone dispersed throughout the house, no longer worried now that they knew what was wrong with Maaya and that she was in good hands. Kyouya went straight to his room and collapsed onto the bed to think. He sighed, _Time to assess; let's see I'm in love with Tamaki's cousin, I have no clue what to get her for Christmas or her birthday, she probably doesn't care for me as more than a friend, and I may or may not be going to the same school as her in a few weeks. Great._ He sat up and rubbed his temples, he was completely screwed. Just then, someone knocked on his door a couple times. "Kyouya, are you in there?" he heard a voice ask, but couldn't place it.

"Yeah, come on in," he replied as he got up and sat in the chair for his desk. Alec walked in and sat down on the edge of the bed. His fair hair was cut short and he was tall for his age, almost taller than Kyouya actually.

"You like my sister, don't you?" Alec asked, not accusatively, just a simple question, cutting straight to the point of his visit.

"What? No, of course I don't like Aranel; she has a boyfriend," Kyouya replied, even though he was quite sure Alec wasn't referring to either of his blood-related sisters.

"No not Aranel. Ok, I guess you could call her my almost step-sister in law…sort of," Alec clarified. "I'm talking about Maaya, she may not be related to me by blood, but I still consider her my sister, just like Ally and Iris."

"I still don't know what you're talking about, I don't like Maaya or anyone like that," Kyouya persisted, trying to keep any part of his body from reddening.

"You can deny it all you want, but I saw your face in the hospital when Avondale said she was going to die. You looked just the way Ally looked when she found out Twi was in a coma and may never wake up. My dad had that very same look when my mom died, the look of pure despair as you realize the only person you'll ever truly love is gone," Alec replied calmly, leaning back on the bed so he was laying across it and folding his hands behind his head. Kyouya just stared at him in disbelief, Alec had seen through his defenses and seen what it had taken him so long to figure out. Kyouya had no idea what to say. What was there to say?

"So, when are you going to tell her?" Alec asked as he gazed at the ceiling.

"I don't know, she probably doesn't like me that way anyhow. She's not interested in boys," Kyouya replied glumly, letting some despair color his voice.

"What does that matter? Were you interested in looking for a girlfriend when you came here?" Alec didn't wait for an answer, "No, but you fell for her anyway. It doesn't matter if you want a relationship or not, love always takes you by surprise so sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and hope for the best. Anyway, considering how open Maaya's been with you since it's only been like a month since you met, I'd say she likes you more than you know, but that's just an assumption.

"What do you mean?" Kyouya asked, confused by Alec's last remark.

"She's not a very outgoing person, sure she laughs a lot and doesn't care what other people think, but Maaya doesn't open up easily to people. Hell, she didn't talk for over two months solid the first time she moved to Pennsylvania. Trust me, Maaya's being a lot more open over all now that she's met you. Everyone can see the changes, she smiles more, she laughs louder, she even lets more people see her artwork," and with that, Alec left the room, closing the door behind him as he left Kyouya to ponder what he'd just said.

He sighed, he had no idea what to do about telling Maaya his feelings for her, and he still had to get her presents. Well, first things first, so he opened his laptop and started browsing through online art stores, hoping to find something. Suddenly he found it, the perfect gift for her. Kyouya still had money in his bank account so he ordered the gift and put express mailing so it would get here in time. Kyouya wondered idly if there was an art store in town where he could buy a painting for her, or maybe a book collection of works. He knew that Maaya's favorite artists were M. C. Escher and Rene Magritte. He'd have to ask Jien to take him to an art store in the next few days.

Kyouya woke up the next morning actually somewhat excited to his surprise. Maaya was coming home from the hospital and he was looking forward to see her again, even though it had been less than twenty-four hours since he'd last seen her. He shook his head, it had only been yesterday that he'd realized his affections for her and yet he was becoming more besotted by her still. He pushed his feelings to the back of his mind as he'd been in habit of doing for the past who knew how many years and got dressed.

As he walked downstairs, he noticed almost everyone was running around while Maaya was getting tackled by Shadow and Sadie. She laughed and exclaimed, "I've been gone a day and they act as if I've been away for a week!" Maaya stood up and smiled at Kyouya. "Hi, Kyouya. Just so you know, you guys are leaving for the festival in two hours, and I have to leave in five minutes. I'm actually surprised you got up this early, it's only six thirty."

"Why do you have to leave now?" Kyouya asked, somewhat disappointed that he couldn't spend more time with her, not that he'd admit it.

"I have to help with the festival. Also, there's this thing they need help organizing and community service is mandatory to graduate. I better get going, see you in a couple hours. Oh, and thanks for you know, doing what you did when I collapsed yesterday," she said, before leaning up to kiss him on the cheek with a smile and dashing off to where he saw Jack waiting to give her a ride. Kyouya stood there, his hand holding his cheek where she'd kissed it. His heart fluttered excitedly. She'd kissed him! Not on the lips, but small details weren't important. Did that mean she liked him? Did that mean she'd go out with him if he asked? _Whoa, slow down Kyouya. She was just thanking you, the kiss didn't mean anything_, said that annoyingly negative voice that exists in the back of your head and exists just to crush your most intimate hopes and dreams. _But it might have,_ he thought back before clearing his head of these thoughts and going to breakfast.

It soon became apparent that everyone was looking forward to the festival, and he, Tyler, and the rest of the Host Club had no idea what to expect. They all dressed casually and everyone left promptly at eight thirty a.m. The drive was short, Sam lived just on the edge of town and the cathedral was right in the center of it. It was huge, and was a mix of gothic and roman architecture. There were several spires and turrets jutting out of it, but he could see a few domes that surprisingly went well with it. Everyone walked inside and Kyouya was left agape with the beauty and size of it. The cathedral, or St. Peter's Cathedral as it was called, was huge, with wide open spaces and an altar, pulpit, and pews; meaning it was still in use as a church. There was a plaque saying it was over seven hundred years old. The ceiling was very high and the morning sun was streaming in through the stained glass windows, casting a myriad of colors on everything below.

St. Peter's Cathedral was full of people wandering around. There were countless stalls spread around it, with random performers strewn about trying to get people's attention. Immediately, Hunny-senpai dragged Mori-senpai to try out the multitude of desserts and cakes, Hikaru and Kaoru dragged Haruhi off to wander with them as Tamaki followed, desperately trying to get his 'daughter's' attention. Everyone else split up to walk around and talk, sampling the free food that everyone had prepared. Just as Kyouya was wondering what to do, he heard someone calling him. "Hey, hey you!" a boy with a collared shirt open over a blue T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and sandy blonde hair was shouting at him as he struggled through the crowd. "Kyouya, right? Maaya and Ree's friend?" the boy, who Kyouya remembered was named Connor, they'd met at the train station.

"Yes, that's me," Kyouya replied, bewildered as to what this boy was so desperate to talk to him about.

"Good, now Maaya won't kill me. Well, she will kill Alec, Avery, Adrian, Ky, Twi, and anyone else she told to stick with you. This place is huge, and she didn't want you or anyone new here wandering alone. Maaya told me to find you so that she and Ree could show you around and stuff. I'm Connor, in case you forgot," Connor explained, panting slightly from running through the crowd.

"I remember, you and that other kid were biking through the train station," Kyouya said as Connor led him through the crowd of people.

"Yeah, that was Caleb. Maaya's going to kill him and Tyler soon," he added, with a shake of his head.

"Why?"

"Well, you see Tyler likes Caleb, and Caleb likes Tyler, but they won't tell each other and it's starting to annoy Maaya and Ree. So, if one of them doesn't ask the other out soon, Ree will probably come up with some wack job plan to get them together, which will sound totally nuts and probably end 

up working," Connor explained as he led Kyouya through a doorway to a room lined with folding chairs and a huge stage in the middle of it.

Maaya and Ree suddenly came out, laughing about something that had happened backstage, and spotted them. "Hey, Kyouya, hi Connor," Maaya said, glad to see them. "I'm going to kill them," she muttered, "I specifically told them to make sure they didn't leave_ anyone_ behind, and they can't even do that."

"Maaya, you shouldn't talk about killing people in a church, remember this is a holy place, so try to think and say good things," Rina reprimanded her gently as she smiled.

Maaya rolled her eyes in reply and said, "Well I'm not _really_ going to kill them, but I will smack them upside the head when we get home."

"I can take care of myself, you know. I'm not a child," Kyouya reminded Maaya.

"I know, but you are in a new place, and it's very easy to get lost in this place. I've done it before," Maaya answered calmly. "And so has Ky, Avery, and Tamaki when he, his mother, and his father were visiting once."

"How long ago was that?" Kyouya asked as Connor disappeared behind the stage and they started wandering around the huge church.

"Hmmm, about six or seven years, I think. I was around ten or eleven when they came to visit for almost the last time," Maaya replied, her face turning downcast at the unpleasant memory of when Tamaki had left and said he couldn't see them ever again.

"Well, I'm going to find Tagh, see you guys later," Rina said as she walked away in search of her boyfriend.

"See ya," Maaya called after her, not minding that she was being abandoned by her twin to escort Kyouya around alone.

Maaya and Kyouya spent the rest of the morning wandering around the cathedral, sampling everything and talking about all sorts of things. It was very easy to talk to her, she was so open to him about so many things. Occasionally they ran into someone from their huge group that had dispersed all over the place, but didn't stick together for very long. Kyouya told her about how he wasn't sure what to do after he graduated high school, and she immediately listed off a bunch of colleges he could apply to for any number of various majors. She admitted she wanted to be a violinist for a symphony like her mother and was trying to get into Julliard. It was fun, Maaya treated a lot of things as jokes and used sarcastic remarks, but didn't have a problem being serious if she needed to be. Kyouya appreciated this because it meant he'd always have someone to talk to if he needed it and someone to brighten his mood. Maaya asked him about things he liked or didn't like about England and what he missed about home, while he asked her what it was like in the United States and what she'd missed most about England while she was there. The more Kyouya thought about it, he began to realize that he and Maaya were on a sort of impromptu date without realizing it. He wondered idly if Alec or anyone else had anything to do with it.

At noon though, Maaya glanced at her watch and said she had to go. "There's a play in an hour and I have to report back and help set up and everything. I guess I'll see you when it's over," she made to leave before remembering something and calling, "Oi, Garrett, Ree, Tagh!" They came over, wondering what she need them for. "Ree and I have to go help with the play, so just hang with Kyouya until it starts and then tell everyone to find seats, although there _should_ be an announcement, but I'm not sure," she explained before dashing off with Rina.

"Hey, Maaya, break a leg!" Garrett called as she and Ree turned around and started walking backwards.

"Ha! Been there, done that! But thanks anyway," she replied before turning back around and turning the corner into the makeshift auditorium.

"Break a leg?" Kyouya asked, unfamiliar with the expression.

"It's theater speak for good luck since they thought it was bad luck to literally wish someone 'good luck'" Murtagh explained. "No clue where it came from or how it got started, but whatever."

"Yeah, we better hunt everyone down and tell them the play starts in an hour. Then we should grab like fifty programs and reserve a seat for everyone with them," Garrett said as Murtagh agreed. They spent half an hour doing just that, then hung about for about 15 min before grabbing their seats to watch the play.

The play was an adaptation of Charles Dickens's _A Christmas Carol_, which Kyouya had surprisingly never seen before. He rather enjoyed it and to his surprise, Maaya played the part of Bob Cratchit's wife. Mrs. Cratchit wasn't a large part and didn't have a lot of lines, but Kyouya thought Maaya did pretty well. Rina played the part of the Ghost of Christmas Past. The acting was good and he found the play very enjoyable. It lasted roughly an hour and a half, so it was over by two thirty. Everyone hung around the stage and talked to the actors. Maaya came down still wearing her costume which she hadn't changed out of yet. It was a peasant outfit, with a long skirt, blouse, apron, and bonnet.

"Hey, Maaya, you did really well, some of those lines fit you perfectly," Jack said as he gave his youngest sister a one armed hug before talking to Rina.

"Thanks, but I really wanted the part of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, but Ms. McAdams said that she wanted to see my quote unquote 'pretty face and hear my lovely voice'," Maaya replied in annoyance.

"Wow, who'd a thunk, Maaya has a pretty face!" Garrett exclaimed in mock astonishment.

"Oh, shut up, Garrett. At least I'm not blind when it comes to people who are in love with me," she retorted. This remark made Kyouya slightly nervous since it either meant she knew about his feelings towards her, or someone was going to tell her this very instant.

"You just leave Sara out of this," Garrett replied as he and Maaya got into a 'discussion' as they called them since it wasn't really an argument, more of a contest to see who could stump the other person for a comeback. They occurred frequently and so far the only undefeated people were Maaya, Alexis, Iris, and Jack.

"Who's Sara?" Hunny-senpai asked Avery as they ignored the 'discussion' between Maaya and Garrett that was becoming more ludicrous and absurd by the second. Their remarks no longer made sense and Maaya was chortling in between comebacks.

"Sara is Garrett's girlfriend and what happened was Sara was friends with Ally and had had a crush on Garrett for two years. It was pretty obvious, the first time Maaya met Sara she figured it out in like five minutes, but it took Garrett two years and a small setup to make him realize that Sara was in love with him. Ally kept telling Sara to tell him, but she wouldn't listen so Garrett is now the blind idiot because of that," Avery replied with a chuckle at the memory.

"Hey, does anyone know when the concert starts?" Kyprioth asked as he walked up to the group.

"Well, let's see, it's three o'clock right now, so in four and a half hours. Meaning Maaya and Rina have to leave in three and half to get ready," Avery replied, glancing at his watch.

"What concert?" Kyouya asked. He glanced at Tamaki and shook his head. He was complaining to Haruhi because she'd sat in between Mori and Kyouya instead of next to him so she could focus on the play without Tamaki's interruptions. Hikaru and Kaoru were talking to Ally and Iris and joking around while Hunny and Mori-senpai stood in a circle with him, Avery, Jack, and Ky.

"The annual Christmas concert that happens every year. Maaya and Rina are always in it, and so are like one hundred other kids. There's two parts to it, the chorus and the orchestra. Rina's in both and has a solo in the chorus while Maaya is only in the orchestra and has a violin solo. She's been practicing forever since they get the music in the summer before school starts and is really good. After that they play classical dancing music and everyone twirls around like in the 1800's, it's fun," Devon said as she walked over.

"Yeah, it's cool. I wonder what the songs are this year for the concert. Maaya and Rina have guarded their secrets insanely well. I swear, they sound proofed their rooms so they could practice without anyone knowing," Jack said, shaking his head at his sisters.

Kyouya listened to the conversation with interest and contributed a little, but no one seemed bothered by his silence. Maybe they were used to people being quiet and silent around them. After a while, Maaya and Rina disappeared to change into their regular clothes. Maaya came over to Kyouya and talked to him before steering him to some booths so he could try some different foods. Everyone dispersed and went their separate ways. Kyouya actually had fun, Maaya was amusing and had an opinion about everything. She made jokes about a lot of things and Kyouya found he loved it when she laughed, it was such a beautiful sound to him. And in that fashion, they whiled away the hours until Maaya had to get ready for the concert. Apparently the orchestra did the music for the choir before having their own concert.


	11. Chapter 11

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who added this story to their favorites and subscription/alert. I would especially like to thank xXDeadly.RoseXx for your review. I also want to add a heads up that there's only about six chapters left in this story, I think. The Christmas chapter which is next might take 2 parts, and after that I'm not sure, but I'm fairly sure there won't be more than six other chapters after this.

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Kyouya sat down at the end of the row as he and everyone else waited for the chorus portion of the concert. The chorus sang beautifully, he was shocked at how _well_ everyone sang, especially the soloists. They sang a total of seven songs: "Welcome One and All", "Gloria", "Osey Shalom", "In Exelcis Deo", "The Principles of Kwanza", and lastly, "Festival of Carols." Some people were even moved to tears and Kyouya could see that the Host Club was in just as much shock as he was, even if he hid his better. The orchestra concert went just as well and he was in even more shock when he heard Maaya's violin solo on Pachelbel's Canon in D Major. She performed brilliantly and with such passion as a smile appeared on her face, you could tell she loved to play. The band played seven other songs, some relating to Christmas or December holidays while others were just pleasant to listen and gave off a happy feeling.

To Kyouya's disappointment, the concert ended only after an hour. The orchestra bowed before filing out in a neat and orderly fashion. After that everyone congratulated Maaya and Rina on their wonderful performances and both flushed with gratification. Once Kyouya was actually next to Maaya, he noticed she was wearing something different than before. She had on a baby blue dress that reached just past her knees with short sleeves, a scoop neck-line, and a black, silk sash around her waist, causing the bottom to flare out a bit. It was a simple and plain dress, yet she looked stunning in Kyouya's eyes. He noticed that Rina had changed into one too, but it was red and a bit fancier. It was odd that she was wearing a dress though, since he knew that Maaya didn't really like them, or high heels for that matter. The other day Tamaki had tried to get her to wear them, and she'd flat out refused by smacking him upside the head. Even Kyouya had laughed at the sight. Today she was wearing black flats with a rim of white on the inside edge and a small white bow on top right sides. He couldn't believe how gorgeous she looked, it nearly took his breath away.

"Oh my gosh! Maaya's wearing a dress, I'm going to faint!" Ky joked, pretending to fall backwards before catching himself.

"Dude, that's actually not that surprising, she wears dresses to school dances too, and she always wears one at the end of the festival," Garrett pointed out.

"Fair point," Ky replied, knowing he'd been beaten.

"And I actually don't mind wearing dresses that much, it's just the really frilly ones I hate and that I can't do as much stuff in them as I can in jeans," Maaya added with a smile.

"I hate it when you guys gang up on me like that, I was just kidding, you know " Ky said, hanging his head in shame at his stupid remark.

"Well, you should be used to it by now," Ally stated. Just as Ky was about to make a remark, Tamaki came charging over in sheer ecstasy at seeing his younger cousin in a dress. He'd been too busy trying to get Haruhi away from the twins for the past few minutes to notice.

"Oh, my precious niece! You look so wonderful in that dress! I knew you would listen to me eventually!" he cried as he hugged her. Maaya just rolled her eyes at her cousin before gently shoving 

him away. Luckily (or unluckily-depending on how you look at it), before anyone could say anything to evil to Tamaki, an announcement came on the loud speaker introducing a band that was playing for the end of the festival dance. There were a lot of girlish screams throughout the cathedral, but everyone in their group just smiled before splitting up to twirl away on the floor in front of the stage where the folded chairs used to be. Now they were stacked against a wall as people took them away to storage.

Suddenly, much to Kyouya's displeasure, Maaya's friend Caleb came out of nowhere with a grin. "May I have the honor of this dance, milady?" he asked in a fake pompous accent with a bow.

"But of course," she replied as she took Caleb's hand and they danced the waltz together.

Kyouya leaned against the wall, jealousy coursing heatedly through his veins at the sight of Maaya dancing with Caleb. Garrett joined him a moment later with a laugh at his expression. "So Alec was right, you _do _like Maaya," he stated as he watched Kyouya watch Maaya.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kyouya answered stiffly.

"Sure you don't. Just like you're not jealous about Maaya dancing with her friend right now. She's very good at it you know," Garrett replied.

"At what?" he asked.

"Getting under your skin and tearing down walls around people's hearts. She used to have one too, so that's why she knows so well. It's kind of funny, from the first day we met, she's been like a sister to me, even if I wasn't the one to help her tear down her wall."

"What wall? She doesn't seem to have one now."

"Now she doesn't, but she used to. When she and Jack came to live with me and my mom and step-dad, she didn't speak one word to anyone except Jack or Rina if she called her, and that was only if no one was in the room. We kept trying to get her to talk, but whatever we did never worked. Eventually we gave up and did what we could to get her to smile or laugh, but we never got more than half a smile. Then she went to St. Judith's so she could be with Rina and her friends and came back for Christmas. It was like she was a brand new person. She was smiling and laughing. I remember the first thing she said to me, Ky, and Avery was a sarcastic remark and it surprised Ky so much that he fell out of his chair. And yet there was still this trace of sadness in her eyes that would appear out of nowhere sometimes. I think this is the first time I haven't seen it since she misses her parents the most around the holidays." Garrett explained as they watched Maaya and Caleb whirl around the dance floor.

"So who broke down the wall?" Kyouya questioned, he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

"I don't know. She never told me and I never asked, it's her business and if she doesn't want to talk about it it's fine with me. Although I did ask what caused her to change and she said she just realized it was time to stop being afraid of befriending people because you might get hurt. Maaya was 

brave enough to break down her own wall, but are you strong enough to break down yours? Oh, and by the way, you're jealous of a gay guy right now," he said before turning around and walking away.

"Wait, what?" demanded Kyouya as he grabbed Garret's arm.

"I said, you're jealous of a gay guy right now. Caleb and Maaya are just friends. I thought you should know, Caleb likes Tyler so you don't need to be jealous of anyone. Everyone here sees Maaya as a sister or a friend. Or you could just ask her to dance yourself," he explained as he went to talk to someone else, leaving Kyouya alone with his confused thoughts.

Kyouya was in total shock. Had his emotions become _that _easy to read on his face? Was he letting his guard slip? This was _not _good, he hadn't come here to fall in love or let his guard down and make friends! He'd come here to escape his father's oppressive nature and make a name for himself in a new country on his own terms instead of his father's. Maybe when he was older and settled in with a prosperous company could he let down his guard and even _think_ of getting involved in a relationship with someone. He sighed, it was hopeless, there was a wall around his heart that had been in place since he was two and old enough to know what was expected of him and it wasn't coming down for a long, long time, if at all.

_But, what's so wrong about showing emotion? There's no one here to yell at you for it or tell you to stop being so weak and childish, _a voice said in his head.

_Because emotions complicate things and make something relatively simple and easy, difficult and complicated. Emotions are useless things, and I don't see why we have them, _he replied. Great, now he was talking to an imaginary voice inside his head. What next, was he going to burst out laughing at something not even remotely funny? Kyouya shuddered at the thought of having such an outburst of emotion.

_Come, come now, you know you don't really believe that. If you did, you wouldn't have fallen in love with Maaya in the first place, or have been so worried about her in the hospital, _the voice answered and for once Kyouya didn't have a reply. Forget the fact that he had just gotten beaten in an argument with a voice in his head that his subconscious had created, but it was actually _right._ Whether he liked it or not, Kyouya Ohtori could not think of a good enough reason to banish emotions, let alone figure out how now that they'd been unleashed again. Sure, Tamaki had let him open up and bit and cracked the wall, but this was something else. It seemed the more time he spent with Maaya and her family, the less reason he had to hide away his emotions and stay the way he had been. There was no father to yell at him, no older brothers to tease him, and no one to say it was impolite or wrong to show emotion. For the first time, Kyouya was free and he'd just now realized it.

Just as he was having these thoughts, the dance ended and Caleb went to go talk to Connor and some girl he was with. _At least I don't have to worry about Connor hitting on Maaya, _Kyouya's eyes widened in shock at the thought that had just run through his head. He couldn't believe how jealous he was, it was such a powerful and irrational emotion! He was so wrapped up in his thoughts, that he barely noticed Maaya come up and stand next to him. "You know, you really should be dancing. It's a 

shame to waste such a wonderful set of songs by standing against a wall and doing nothing. I mean you're not even talking to people or eating or doing something to make up for it," she said suddenly with a shake of her head in disappointment.

"There was no one to dance with that I knew," Kyouya replied coolly in an effort to hide his emotions. He hoped Maaya was only joking and wasn't really mad at him.

"Now you're starting to sound like Mr. Darcy from _Pride and Prejudice_," Maaya answered with a smile. "You'll have to make amends for it, you know."

"Oh? And how would I go about doing that?"

"Easy, ask someone to dance."

Easier said than done, Kyouya thought before Maaya grabbed his hand and said, "I'm going to take your silence for a yes to dancing with me, unless you don't know how," she teased.

"That's rather impolite, you know. You barely gave me enough time to ask a question before whisking me out here. And for your information, I _can _dance, I just prefer not to," he retorted as he whirled her around the dance floor in time to the waltz.

"Now, you're really sounding like Mr. Darcy, you best be careful or I'll think you're acting like him to get on my good side," she said with a smile.

"Really? Then I shall have to re-read the book so that I know how I'm allowed to act around you."

"Yes, I suppose you will. I believe it's in your room, I picked out the books myself to go in all the guest rooms on that floor. If not, I'll lend it to you. It's one of my favorite books."

"Interesting, I thought that _Wuthering Heights_ was your favorite book. Considering the events, I didn't figure you for a happy ending type girl and the books are almost complete opposites."

"Actually, I like _Pride and Prejudice _better since I prefer happy endings, but it's just that even though Catherine and Heathcliff marry other people, they always manage to end up together and how Heathcliff really wasn't that bad, but was just upset because he couldn't have her when Edgar Linton did. That's why it's a favorite," she explained as the dance came to an end.

"Hmmm, I suppose that makes sense. I'm not much of a romantic novel person, so that could affect my take on the book," Kyouya mused as they danced along with the next song. It was a bit more fast paced, so they didn't really talk as much. Even so, it was a comfortable silence, and he could see a soft smile playing on Maaya's lips throughout the whole song. They took a break so that Maaya could eat something and force Kyouya to try some more different food that he'd never heard of before. To his surprise he actually liked the food, it seemed Maaya knew him as well as she knew herself.

"Think he could be any more oblivious of his own feelings?" she asked, gesturing to her cousin as he fumed about "his precious daughter's innocence being tainted by those devil twins" while Haruhi danced with Kaoru.

Kyouya shook his head in exasperation, "Probably not, he seems to be blocking them with the "daddy" persona he's implanted on the whole club."

"Really? That's interesting. I didn't think he would be responsible enough to take on the fatherly part in a mock family. But then, he _is _older than me and I haven't seen him in a long time," she wondered aloud as she drank some punch.

"He's not really acting responsible, he leaves that part to me. Even when I'm here I still have to manage all of the accounts and funding or else they'd end up going bankrupt," he replied as they watched Haruhi switch dance partners so that now she was dancing with Tamaki, making him very happy indeed.

"Ah, so you're the mother, eh? That figures, I remember Cale's mother being a lot more responsible when it came to certain things than Sam. She didn't really seem to mind, it was just odd to see him acting so childishly sometimes when I was younger. I kind of miss that side of him, it seems to have almost disappeared in the last few years."

"What do you mean?" Kyouya asked, intrigued.

"Well, ever since my Aunt Laura, Cale's mom, died, Sam hasn't been as happy and joking as he used to be. He's gotten better, but it's still not the same, he's more serious and works more than he did before. It's sad because now Cale will probably never see that part of his dad that we have," she explained with a downcast expression.

Kyouya mentally kicked himself for bringing it up; it was obviously a painful memory. Fortunately, just then Maaya burst out laughing at the fact that Fred and George had just pulled a prank on Hikaru and Kaoru by tying the shoelaces of their shoes together so they couldn't walk and fell flat on their faces. Kyouya chuckled at the sight. Poor Hikaru and Kaoru spent the rest of the night undoing the expert knots in their laces. "How could four-year-olds tie knots like this?" Hikaru asked in exasperation.

"Easy," they heard Devon reply with a smirk, "Their quick learners and have excellent teachers on all things evil and mischievous." To which, neither twin had a reply but an evil glare aimed at the two trouble makers themselves as they hid behind their mother's skirt.

"Wow, they really are devil twins, aren't they?" Kyouya wondered aloud.

"Well, they _do _have the best teachers. I think they learned the knot trick from Devon herself, but most of them were taught by Kyprioth and Avery. I swear, pretty soon they'll start a club at school called the Jester's Court or something which has the sole purpose of teaching kids how to pull perfect pranks on their family, friends, and teachers," Maaya answered.

"Say, that's not a bad idea," Ky said as he walked up from behind them.

"Oh great, now we're all doomed. Hopefully the administrative staff won't approve it since you have to ask their permission before starting a club," she replied.

"We could lie and say that we're actually studying the work and history of court jester's for educational purposes," Ky answered with an evil smile.

"Now we're_ really _doomed. Maybe you'll forget about it by the time we go back to school," she hoped as Kyouya observed the conversation with amusement.

"Not likely, this is too good an idea to pass up!" he exclaimed before dashing off to tell his partners in crime.

"Darn, now he'll never let it go. Oh well, I'll just have to hope the club isn't formed until he goes to college or something, not likely, but it's still worth a shot," she said before dismissing it with a shake of her head and dragging Kyouya back onto the dance floor. They spent the rest of the night dancing until it was time to go home and the festival ended.

He might not admit it, but that was one of the happiest nights in Kyouya's life. He actually found himself smiling and even chuckling a little bit. It wasn't much, but it was definitely an improvement on his character, something that, unbeknownst Kyouya, Maaya had without a doubt had noticed.


	12. Chapter 12

Hey, guys, I'm really sorry about not updating for so long....again. I've been really busy with school, colorguard, and just all sorts of stuff. I have good and bad news. The good news is that I'm almost done and the bad news is I'm almost done. There are 2 chapters left, one of which is mostly completed. I think the reason I've been having such bad writer's block is that I've enjoyed writing this story so much that I'm kinda sad to finish it. Anyway, on a happier note I would like to thank Flourescent-chan for adding my story to your alert and y0ur-DoWnFaLl for your review. I'm sorry for melting your brain though. lol. Lastly I would like to thank my friend Tori for bugging me to finish this chapter and helping me come up with amusing ideas.

* * *

Kyouya woke up late the next day at around noon-ish since he'd stayed up late last night talking with Maaya as she made tea for him and hot cocoa for her. There were only six days left until Christmas Day and the feeling of excitement and eagerness was almost palpable. He might have been looking forward to the day too, if not for the fact that the gift he'd ordered had yet to arrive and he had no idea how he was going to get it without anyone untrustworthy noticing. It was scheduled to arrive that day in the afternoon, but you never knew with shipping in such unpredictable weather. Kyouya sighed, he didn't know the exact time his package was to get there or how he was going to keep it a secret from everyone. This was clearly an issue.

Now, most people would ask someone for help to hide the gift when it arrived, like Jack or Jien. But, no, Kyouya had to do things the hard way - that's to say, without help. So he spent an entire hour in his room, pacing in worry, and would have continued for longer, except a maid came in to say "Miss Katarina Sakamoto-Carson requests your presence at a late brunch in fifteen minutes." Kyouya thanked her for the information and asked her to tell Rina he'd be there. She nodded and said she would before leaving the room. He sighed to calm his nerves before getting dressed into proper clothing. Yes, Kyouya Ohtori, the emotionless and proper Shadow King, had paced in his pajamas for an hour.

That was odd though, what would Rina want to talk to him about? Oh, crap, she didn't know did she? She most likely did, if Garrett and Alec could figure it out, then she sure as hell could. Oh well, he'd have to face it sooner or later. Kyouya just wished it hadn't been this soon. But that couldn't be helped, so he'd have to watch what he said and keep his guard. He didn't for one moment consider her as an ally in helping him reveal his feelings toward Maaya. As a matter of fact, he hardly considered telling her at all. What if she didn't like/love him in return? Kyouya didn't think he could bear the shame.

* * * * *

Kyouya took a deep breath in preparation for breakfast with Rina. He wasn't looking forward to it – in fact he was rather nervous, but Kyouya Ohtori never got nervous. Kyouya opened the door and stepped into the room to talk with Rina.

"Hello, Kyouya," she said with a smile. Her hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail and she was wearing glasses rather than her contacts. It was still easy to tell her from Maaya, her hair was much straighter and lighter.

He nodded in reply before sitting at the counter he'd sat at just the night before, although under very different circumstances and with a very different person. It had been a very cheerful mood when he'd had tea with Maaya. She'd told him stories that she remembered about Tamaki and her family. She also explained the mysterious scars he'd seen at the hospital. Apparently they were from a car accident a year ago in which a drunk driver's car had smashed into hers on her left side. Rina had suffered from a few bruises and a broken wrist while three ribs, a collar bone, four knuckles, and two bones in her calf had all been broken on Maaya's left side. Kyouya's fist had tightened in anger under the table at the thought of such a thing having been done to her.

"Do you know why I asked you to have brunch with me today, Kyouya?" Rina asked, pulling Kyouya from his reverie as she twirled a spoon in her tea.

"No, actually, I don't," he replied.

"I imagined not. Well, it's for two reasons. Number one is that as Jien couldn't find you to tell you that a package had arrived for you and didn't wish to disturb you, he told Jack, who in turn told me since he guessed it was a gift for my sister and thought I would like to tell you. Secondly, is I wanted to know why you would order such an expensive gift for my sister when you don't seem to have that much money to your name," she explained.

Kyouya swallowed. He tried to think of something to say but couldn't. It was like his brain had just randomly decided to turn off. In a panic, he scanned the room, looking for something to help him, but found nothing. He noticed Rina seemed to be amused by his struggle.

"You like her don't you? You like Maaya," she proclaimed with confidence.

Kyouya could do nothing but sit there. He neither denied or confirmed her suspicion, even though he could clearly see she'd figured it out.

"That figures. I should have guessed the moment I saw you," she muttered with a smile on her face and a shake of her head.

"Why?" Kyouya asked, finally finding his voice again.

"Well, I remember she got an email from a friend a couple years ago and it was this link to a quiz called "Your Perfect Man." She took the quiz just for fun and the result she got was that her perfect man would be 'smart, rich, and mysterious.' You seem to be pretty smart, you come from a rich family, and don't really talk about your past so you seem sort of mysterious. You fit the bill pretty well."

Kyouya stared at her in shock. She'd just explained that some random website claimed he fit the bill for him to be Maaya's 'perfect man.' He found the whole situation rather hard to comprehend. He had no idea if Maaya shared his feelings or not. What did Rina mean by telling him this? Did that mean she thought her sister liked him as more than a friend or that she approved of his feelings for her? Kyouya took a deep breath and let it out as he tried to sort everything out in his head. "It doesn't matter whether I am her soul mate or not; how can I ask Maaya to accept me when I can't even provide for myself?" he muttered under his breath.

"You're overreacting, Kyouya. It's not like I'm telling you to ask her to marry you. We don't care about money. If you're wealthy, poor, or exactly in the middle doesn't matter to us. Just as long as you're honest and don't gamble everything away, we couldn't care less. You worry too much about money and social standing; you should really get out of that habit. Just tell Maaya that you like her and go from there; take it one step at time and stop worrying so much about the future," Rina said before putting her empty mug in the sink and leaving the room.

Kyouya shook his head. She didn't understand, he didn't _want _to care about money and social standing, but it had been ingrained into him since he was a kid, which made it almost impossible to ignore. With a sigh, he stood up and grabbed the small box that contained his gift for Maaya.

It was difficult to sneak past everyone to his room without being seen, but Kyouya managed. Once he made sure his door was locked tight, he sat at his desk and opened the box. The present was already wrapped inside so he didn't have any work. He just hoped that the gift hadn't been broken on the way over. The outside box was stamped with the words 'FRAGILE' and 'DO NOT GET WET' but you never knew.

As Kyouya sat at his desk after putting the gift safely away, he wondered how Rina had known that the present had cost so much. Then he noticed that the price was stamped on a sticker on the box.  
_Oh,_ he thought to himself. _Wow, that was a dumb moment. If I'm not careful, I'll start turning into Tamaki._

****

Kyouya sighed. It had been an hour since he'd talked to Rina and he had nothing to take his mind off the thing that worried him most. He had no clue how to even begin to tell Maaya he'd gotten her a present, let alone the fact that he loved her. No matter what, Kyouya couldn't keep his mind off her; he'd tried reading, finishing account summaries for the Host Club, and sleeping. Nothing worked, it was hopeless. This was why he now found himself wandering the hallways of the mansion, desperately trying to find something, anything, to distract him. Or maybe he was really looking for Maaya and couldn't admit it to himself.

He soon wandered into the pool on the fourth floor to find Maaya swimming laps. _So _this_ is where she's been hiding,_ Kyouya thought to himself as he walked into the room. He made it to the edge of the pool just as Maaya did. Talk about weird timing, huh? Maybe it's fate! (Hehe, JK).

"Hi, Kyouya," Maaya said as she rested her arms on the pool edge, treading water easily.

"Hello. Just how long have you been swimming?" he asked in curiosity.

"Well I joined the swim team in nineth grade, but had to quit this year 'cause my joints can't take it. I've only been swimming for a few minutes this morning though," she answered.

"Oh."

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked. "Looking to go for a swim?"

"Actually I was bored so I just started wandering around and just ended up here."

"Very smooth. You still didn't answer my other question."

"Which one?"

"Do you want to go swimming? Just relax and chill out?" she asked, hoping for a yes, but trying to hide it.

"I'm not sure, I don't have any swimwear," Kyouya replied. He was nervous at the thought of Maaya seeing him half-naked. (Oooo, someone's embarrassed! Can you imagine Kyouya blushing? LOL!)

"So put on a pair of shorts and jump in. Or we might have an extra pair of swim trunks in the changing room," she said, pointing to the doorway to the right.

"I don't know, I don't really like swimming that much," Kyouya hedged, trying to get out of it.

"Oh, come on. Stop being such a wimp." Suddenly, before Kyouya could reply, she jumped out and _shoved_ him into the pool (Oh no she didn't! lolz) before jumping in herself.

Kyouya resurfaced and stared at her in shock. He couldn't believed he just been _pushed into the pool_. And Maaya's laughing at his expression did _not_ help. He glared at her, but to no avail, she just kept laughing. "Oh, come on you have to admit that was pretty funny," she said in response to his glare. "Not my fault you wouldn't come swimming." She smirked evilly at him.

Kyouya sighed. Well, he was already soaked so he might as well just stay in the water. He did, however, manage to shed his shirt and socks so he felt _slightly_ less ridiculous and put his wet glasses on the edge of the pool so they wouldn't get broken. Then an idea popped into his head. A very _evil_ idea. "Maaya, come here for a second," he said suddenly.

"Oh no. No way. Just stay away from me," she called, swimming away as soon as she saw the look in his eye. Kyouya laughed as he swam after her. (Haha! I'm not telling you his evil ploy. I'm going to be mean and let you figure it out. I know it got a little OOC at the end, but oh well. It was just too funny to not write it.)


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry this chapter took so long, I've been busy with school work and studying for finals which got postponed due to a car accident involving two seniors at my school. I'm kinda sad that I only have one chapter to go, which is almost done. I have maybe about a page or two to go. I hope you all enjoyed reading it so far and thanks for all the support.

* * *

"Come on, get up, sleepy head! It's Christmas! Time to open presents!" Kyouya heard a distinctly familiar voice yell. He ignored the annoying person and turned over. "Oh no, you're not getting off that easy." The voice, he realized, was definitely female and _very _close.

Suddenly, the sheets and blankets were torn from his bed and he felt a wave of cold air. Then the lights suddenly flicked on, almost blinding him with their brightness. Kyouya sat up and glared at Maaya, who was staring back cheekily with an evil grin plastered on her face as she sat on his now bare bed.

"You know, glaring at me isn't going to help you get back to sleep. It's not like you can frighten me away with a _look_," she told him. "Now get up before I turn your bed over to dump you out of it. Or I could get Fred and George to dump cold water on you again. Your lucky I'm the one who woke you up instead of them. They get very impatient when it comes to opening presents. Well, breakfast is being served so you better put on a shirt and get downstairs," she added before prancing out of his room.

Kyouya shook his head. His heart was racing and his breathing was shallow. He couldn't believe the effect she had on him. Every time she got close, his heart starting pumping double time. Kyouya sighed, it was hard to believe it was already Christmas day. The past few days just flew by.

To start off, on the nineteenth, six days until Christmas, he'd found out that Rina knew of his affections for her younger twin. She'd given him the gift he'd ordered for Maaya and he'd hidden it in his room before wandering around, unconsciously in search of Maaya. Then he'd found her in the pool and after a couple minutes, she'd _shoved_ him in the pool, glasses and all. But he'd gotten back at her for it by dunking her underwater for a few minutes. Kyouya smiled as he recalled that scene of amusement.

"_Maaya, come here for a second," he said suddenly._

"_Oh no. No way. Just stay away from me," Maaya called, swimming away as soon as she saw the look in his eye._

_Kyouya just laughed in response and chased after her as she quickly swam away. She protested in between giggles as he grabbed her around the waist and tickled her sides mercilessly. "Stop," she gasped in between fits of laughter, "that tickles!"_

_"Really?" he asked evilly. "If you apologize _maybe_ I'll stop."_

_"I'll never surrender!" she yelled. "Never!"_

_"Fine, have it your way," he replied with a smirk before shoving her head underwater. He held her there for a few seconds before quickly swimming away._

_Surprisingly, she resurfaced a foot away from him, coughing out water. "You are a dead man," she stated quietly before diving under and dragging him down by his feet. Kyouya came up a few seconds later, sputtering water everywhere._

_"You-you," he struggled to find a word bad enough to call her before noticing she wasn't there. He turned around just as he felt Maaya jump on his back and wrap her hands around his neck. _

_"Gotcha," she whispered by his ear before disappearing underwater. Kyouya felt his heart hammering in his chest and his face heat up. She'd been _so_ close before dashing away, as if the action meant nothing to her. Then again, she was probably used to horsing around in water with her older brothers and crazy family._

_Kyouya spotted Maaya at the other end of the pool, lazily kicking around the pool with her eyes closed in complete relaxation. It was a perfect oppurtunity to get back at her, yet he couldn't do it. He couldn't make himself swim over and disturb her – she looked so peaceful. Just then, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. "You know, you really should try this. Just relax and forget everything around you for a few minutes. It's very restful," she suggested. _

"_Hmmm," was his reply as he closed his eyes and floated, forgetting all his worries for the moment. _

"_Very articulate," Maaya commented drily. _

"_Thank you. I pride myself on my superior knowledge of vocabulary and formal etiquette," he responded pompously._

_That got a laugh out of her. "I bet you do. But you know there's more to life than vocabulary and etiquette."_

"_Oh really?"_

"_Yes, really."_

"_Such as?" he prompted._

"_Christmas, family, happiness, and, of course, chocolate-covered pretzels," she answered cheekily. _

_Kyouya smiled at the last item on her list and they lapsed into a comfortable silence. _

It had been another happy memory he'd gotten here. Kyouya smiled at the memory of that day. After their swim, they'd taken showers and talked the rest of the day, discussing Christmas traditions and what Tamaki might be getting them. He was surprised that Maaya didn't ask if he'd gotten her anything, but since she didn't ask he didn't bring it up. She also didn't mention if she had a present for him, but Kyouya figured he'd find out soon enough.

After that, nothing really eventful happened. The days passed by as everyone hung out and talked, waiting for Christmas to arrive as the days ticked by. On the twenty-third though, just as Cale had said, Maaya's Aunt Elise and Aunt Lisa came over with their families. Elise had a husband named Jim and a son named Brian. Lisa was married to Bruce, who had just come out of the hospital after falling in a fire, and a son name Brendan and a girl named Alyssa. What surprised Maaya, Kyouya noted, was when Caleb and CJ showed up on their bikes, even though it was snowing again and the roads were terrible. They had gifts for her, Rina, Jack, and a few other people and had received several in return. Both parties warned each other not to open the presents until Christmas and laughed afterwards.

They had dinner and everyone was introduced, or in some cases re-introduced, to each other and they talked about how work and everything was going. Everybody was excited for Christmas and the New Year. They also discussed what Maaya and Rina wanted for their birthdays which were the 31st and 1st, but both insisted they didn't need or want anything. "Well, except maybe some more painting materials for Maaya and sheet music," Rina conceded, earning a laugh from everyone else. They didn't really want a lot, after all, the two had everything they needed, a loving family, the skills and talent to do what they loved, and each other. No one but Kyouya noticed the look Rina gave Maaya before whispering something in her ear, causing Maaya's eyes to widen in surprise and for her to smack Rina.

Altogether it had been an interesting evening. Especially when Tamaki freaked out because he didn't know what to get Maaya and Rina for their birthdays. The two just laughed and told him all they wanted were cards and nothing else. It puzzled him greatly. He kept insisting there must be something they wanted, but the twins declined and said they wanted nothing. "Well, there's something Maaya wants, but no one can get it for her," Rina hinted mischievously.

"If you say one more word, I will shoot you in the face," Maaya threatened as she glared at her older sister.

"Don't worry, I won't tell a soul," Rina replied, ignoring Maaya's threat. Maaya glared in response.

"You better not," she warned.

Tamaki started to ask what they were talking about, but Rina quickly cut him off by reminding Maaya they still needed to wrap presents. They quickly left and Kyouya shook his head at Rina's not-so-subtle departure cue.

On Christmas Even he'd been forced to help the Host Club make cookies, even though Maaya told them they didn't have to. "Nonsense, we will spend our time like most commoners, making sugar cookies from scratch!" Tamaki had insisted. Maaya had just slapped her head with a book in response to his idiocy.

"You know, Tamaki, we don't make sugar cookies because we're poor," Garrett told him as he sprinkled flour on the dough he was rolling out to prevent it sticking. "We do it because it's fun and you have to leave milk and cookies out for Santa or he might not come and he has so far to travel. Right, Cale?"

"Yup!" the happy five-year-old replied as he sat on a stool, pressing shapes into the dough Maaya had just finished rolling out. She laughed in response and started placing the cookies on the tray to put in the oven.

"That and it's fun. Especially when you spray people with flour," she added with a smile. Kyouya smirked at her appearance. She had her hair pulled up in a pony tail and was wearing contacts so she wouldn't get flour on her glasses. Her shirt was a long-sleeved V-neck covered in flour, as were her paint-stained jeans.

"You mean like this?" Avery asked as he dropped a handful of flour on Elly's head.

"You are so dead!" Elly yelled as she chased him around the kitchen, causing everyone to laugh.

It was complete and utter chaos. There were five little kids, three of which were five and under, and everyone else was joking around, creating a mess. And the fact that Tamaki had no idea what he was doing and just getting things everywhere was no help. Rina was trying to help him, but failing so she just gave up with a laugh as Hikaru and Kaoru tried to get a reaction out of Haruhi by putting dough on her face and licking it off when Tamaki wasn't looking. Meanwhile, Hunny and Mori were doing well, but Mori had to keep Hunny from eating the dough, not an easy task.

The entire kitchen was a mess, the floor and almost every surface were covered with flour or some ingredient from the cookie mix and the shapes were getting destroyed half the time. It was crazy, but everyone was having a good time, especially when Avery slipped in the flour and got nearly completely covered in it. His entire backside was white and there were chunks in his hair. "Oh, if you think that's funny, how about this?" he said as her through flour at Maaya's face. She laughed in response and threw some back. Pretty soon everyone joined in, except Kyouya, but he was forced to when Maaya threw flour at him.

His entire face was covered, as were his clothes. He tossed some back and ended up hitting Tamaki as she ducked. It had turned into an all out flour war with every person for themselves. The kitchen was a horrible mess which they all had to clean up once they were done and the cookies were either in the oven or cooling. Then everyone started throwing water at each other as they washed dishes, wiped off counter tops, or mopped up the floor. The little kids had fled a while ago to avoid getting hurt.

All together it had been an amusing and crazy six days. Kyouya went downstairs after hastily putting on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt. He fixed his crooked glasses and didn't attempt to comb his crazy hair. It was already a lost cause. Besides, Maaya might like his hair more if it was somewhat disheveled.

All together it had been an amusing and crazy six days. Kyouya went downstairs after hastily putting on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt. He fixed his crooked glasses and didn't attempt to comb his crazy hair. It was already a lost cause. Besides, Maaya might like his hair more if it was somewhat disheveled. He mentally shook his head at himself. Kyouya knew for a fact that Maaya didn't care about outward appearances, but he still tried to look his best in front of her. He was hopeless. That much was clear.

Kyouya entered the kitchen and sat across from Garrett at the table. Everyone was busy eating and not really talking. Apparently everyone was hurrying to eat so they could open presents earlier. Just then, Maaya came in and sat in the empty chair next to him. "Just so you know, everyone that could be woken up is up and once breakfast is over, we're all going to the family room to open presents," she announced before grabbing some toast and biting into it.

Kyouya did all he could to keep himself from fidgeting. He was nervous about giving Maaya her present. It was a very strange emotion, he was dreading and looking forward to the opening of gifts all at the same time. Kyouya was also curious as to what Maaya may have gotten him. He wanted the breakfast to last forever so that he wouldn't see Maaya's reaction, but at the same time wanted it to end quickly so he _could_ see her reaction. It was the first time in his life that he'd had such conflicting emotions raging at the same time.

Gradually eveyryone came downstairs for breakfast. Fred, George, Cale, Cole, and Gabriel refused to eat, but went straight to the Christmas tree and started organizing presents. The kids seemed to be the only ones awake. Everybody else was still half-asleep from staying up too late and being woken up too early. The kids stood next to their parents, tugging on their clothes, urging them to hurry up so they could open their presents. It was an amusing sight. The Host Club was grumbling and in disarray, and Kyouya was pleased to see their shocked expressions when they saw he was up before them. The people at the table tried to eat, but at the urging of the five little boys, everyone abandoned their food and gathered in the main living room to open their presents.

The tree had been cut down from the forest on Sam's property. Well, it wasn't really the forest, but among the couple hundred acres of land, there were a couple hills devoted to growing evergreens to be cut down for Christmas. Kyouya had declined to go and it was before the Host Club came, so it was a small group of people that chose the tree. They had then set it up and Maaya, Rina, and Cale had spent many devoted hours decorating it. Kyouya recalled walking in on Jack balancing Cale on his shoulders as the five-year-old carefully placed the angel on the top of the tree. He then smiled triumphuntly and clapped his hands at the sight. It had been a precious moment that Maaya had discreetly captured on camera.

Everyone gathered around the tree, some sitting on couches, most were on the floor, though. There was a huge pile of presents surrounding the tree, and once everyone was settled, Cale, Cole, and Gabriel went to work handing everyone their presents and organizing them. It was obvious they did this every year and looked forward to it. Once everyone had their presents, Garrett stood up. "Before we all start opening presents and go all crazy with the wrapping paper flying everywhere," he began, earning a laugh from everyone, "I'd like to say something. Since I currently don't have a job and Murtagh and I are really low on funding this year, we couldn't afford to get everyone presents. So, for the people that mean so much to us and have helped us through rough times in the past, we made a very special gift for all of you. As all of you know, I'm in a garage band with hopefully a future. But if not, I'll just go to music school and start another. So, our gift this year is a music video starring my band that was directed and produced by Murtagh."

Everyone clapped at the end of this speech and a few people cheered. Then Garrett turned on the TV, put a DVD in the player, and pressed play. The song was titled "Break Out (It's Another Fake Out)" The credits rolled like a movie at the beginning. It started showing Garret, three other guys, and a girl hanging out in a room with a TV. They were talking and joking around. Screaming could be dimly heard from below. Garrett was strumming on a guitar, the girl was humming along, two guys were playing a game, and one was busy writing lyrics. After a few seconds, everyone decided to call it a night and everyone, except the kid writing lyrics left. The music then started with heavy base and drums. During the course of the video, you see the home-lives of the five teenagers. All of their parents are screaming and things are thrown about their rooms. They call each other and meet up at a gas station. The music pauses and the teenagers decide to steal an old VW van circa 1975 and escape their sucky families. Unfortunately, the five of them, except for the eldest-looking, get caught by the cops and dragged to the police station. They all get mug shots taken where they're either smirking or doing some crazy face. Their parents show up and scream at them after taking them away. As the music starts to end, the eldest-looking shows up in a bright red convertible and says, "Hop in." They all hop in and the video ends with them riding away into the sunrise as their parents and the cops stand watching in horror.

The entire room clapped and whistled as the video ended. Garrett stood up and bowed. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week," he said with a smirk.

"Well, that was something, Garrett. I have no doubt you'll make it into a good music school now. Thank you for sharing that with us. Now that that's done, we'll have everyone open presents, starting with the youngest. Fred and George, you're up," Sam said with a smile.

The boys eagerly ripped off the wrapping paper and tore open their presents. They thanked everyone as they compared gifts and discussed who could use what and when. Despite being evil devil-twins, they were good at sharing and getting along with each other. After that it was Cale, then Gabriel t and Cole. It was interesting to watch everyone's reactions to their gifts and soon enough, the entire room was a mess of wrapping paper and empty bags. Soon everyone had gotten their presents from everyone, except Maaya and Rina had yet to give one to Cale, Kyouya, or the Host Club, and Kyouya was waiting until they were alone to give Maaya his gift for her.

After everyone had opened their gifts and thanked the givers, Maaya and Rina disappeared for a few seconds and re-appeared with a giant box and seven smaller gifts balanced on top. The two of them were smiling in anticipation for something. Everybody was puzzled by the huge box and wondered who it could be for, but the girls would say nothing. They just smiled at each other and handed the seven flat gifts to each member of the Host Club. Rina gave Haruhi, Hikaru, and Hunny theirs, while Maaya handled Kaoru, Mori, and Kyouya. They each gave Tamaki a gift, one looked like the rest of them – flat and rectangular – but the other was a box that Sam had been hiding. Each member of the Host Club opened their flat, rectangular gifts to find a double picture frame. One held a picture of the entire Host Club standing together in their uniforms while the other was a drawing done by Maaya of the exact same photo. The Club's eyes widened in shock, they couldn't believe the quality of work that the drawing was. They were all exactly the same and clearly every single one was hand-drawn, none had been copied.

"We thought you all might like a memento for when you all graduate. We found the picture on the website and I figured it would be fun to draw it," Maaya explained with a shrug as she sat down on the floor next to Cale.

"And so that you could remember all of us and your crazy time in England with us, I put together a few songs I'd written and tweaked them a little bit," Rina added as she sat down on the other side of Cale. The Host Club all found a CD hidden in the wrapping paper. The cover of the CD case had a picture of everyone else all smiling nicely, while the back was a crazy picture where they all made funny faces.

"Now, Tamaki, you may open your other gift," the girls said in perfect unison. Tamaki opened his second gift to find a homemade chocolate éclair cake. And taped to the top of the box was a recipe that he could give to his chefs back home.

"We know how much you miss the cake our mom and yours used to make all the time, so we found the recipe and made on ourselves," Maaya informed him.

"And since we knew you'd want more, we decided to give you the recipe so that you could have your chefs make it anytime you want," Rina interjected. Tamaki looked at them with tears of joy in his eyes before rushing over and hugging them tightly. The girls smiled as Tamaki backed away and sat back down.

"And now for the best gift of this year. Drum roll please," Sam stated in a loud voice to gather everyone's attention.

"Here is our gift from me, Rina, Katelyn, Jien, and most of all, your dad, to you," Maaya said as she and Rina placed the giant box in front of Cale. He had to stand up to open it.

"What is it? What is it?" Cale asked as he stood up.

"Open up and you'll find out," Jien said mysteriously as he winked at Rina and Maaya. A faint wimpering and scratching could be heard from inside the box.

Cale pulled the strings of the ribbon and pulled off the huge lid to reveal a puppy with a bright red bow around its neck. It was a chocolate labrador and was standing up on his hind legs as he tried to get out. "A puppy! You guys are the bestest!" the young boy exclaimed in sheer delight as Rina pulled out the puppy and placed him in front of Cale. The dog leaped up and licked Cale's delighted face. He sat down and petted the puppy, the joys was plain on his face. "What should I name him?" Cale asked as he held the puppy in his lap.

"Whatever you want, he's your puppy," Katelyn replied as she smiled maternally at Cale.

"Hmmm. I like the name Samson, but I think it's too grown-up for him," Cale mused.

"How about Sammy?" his father suggested.

"Sammy…yeah! I like it!" Cale exclaimed as he hugged the brown puppy close. "How about it boy, are you my Sammy?" The puppy yipped in return before licking his cheek. Everyone smiled at them and Maaya pulled out her camera and snapped a few pictures of the duo.

"Do you ever put that thing away?" Rina asked her sister jokingly.

"Not really. Only when I'm charging it, and never on Christmas. There are too many perfect scenes to take pictures of," her younger twin replied.

Soon after the gift giving ended, everyone started to drift off to put their gifts away or keep playing with them, as Cale was until Sam suggested that the puppy might be hungry. They then went into a pantry to find some puppy food and a bowl that Sam had bought weeks ago when he decided his son was ready for a dog.

Kyouya, meanwhile, ran upstairs and grabbed the gift he had for Maaya and placed it on the desk in her room. She never locked the door since there was no one in the house that she didn't trust. Everybody knew not to pull pranks on her or she would kick the crap out of them. You don't mess with third degree black belts and get away with it.

Kyouya sighed as he walked out of Maaya's room. He hoped she would like the gift he'd gotten for her. Oh well, he'd put the gift on her desk, now he'd just have to wait and see what happened. Kyouya wandered around the house to find Rina, the Host Club, and Avery watching a movie that had just started. He sat down in an armchair and settled in to watch, glad to have something to distract him from his nerves.

Little did Kyouya know, but while he watched an amusing movie entitled _A Christmas Story_, Maaya walked into her room to grab her sketchbook and draw one of the trees outside her window and spotted the little, square, green-and-white-striped box on her desk that contained her gift. She looked at the box in puzzlement for a second as she wondered who could have sent it before setting her sketchbook down and picking up the pale green box. She slowly untied the white ribbon around it and lifted off the lid. Surprisingly, there wasn't a name at the bottom of the note. In the box was a hand-written note that simply said, "For the one that had managed to capture and melt my frozen heart. I hope you enjoy your gift." Maaya's eyes widened in shock. Who would send her a note like that? Who could possibly have such strong emotions for her? There was no one in the house that she thought as more than a family member, well except for one person, but _he_ would never write such a note for anyone.

With shaking hands, Maaya took the note out of the box to reveal the gift underneath. Sitting on a white cushion was a beautiful, sterling silver charm bracelet. Maaya gasped as she admired it. On it were four charms: a silver angel, a blue enameled eighth note, a small violin, and a purple paint brush. She couldn't believe the craftsmanship and quality of work that it had taken to make such a beautiful bracelet. Again she wondered: who would give her such an expensive and lovely gift? Also, not many people outside those in the house knew she loved to paint. It was an enticing mystery, one that she was determined to solve.


	14. Chapter 14

Yays! I'm nearly done! I know I said this would be the last, but I just can't fit it all into one chapter. So now it's two! Don't worry, I'm going to post the last chapter before the day is over and it's now 9:11, so I have 2 hours and 49 minutes! The last chapter is complete and has been for a while now, I just need to add a few filler paragraphs so that the story flows and makes sense. Then I'm done. Gasp! As a last note, I would like to thank freyasakura for your review. It meant a lot and I hope you didn't consider this too long a wait. Enjoy!

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Dinner was an interesting event. Especially since throughout the day Tamaki had been trying to help make dinner, but everyone refused to let him near the kitchen and actually locked it to keep him out. When he sulked in his corner, Haruhi suggested that they probably didn't let guests ever help out with dinner out of courtesy to get him out of his black mood. Maaya and Rina laughed when Avery snuck in to tell them and help out since he was considered family and made terrific bread.

Kyouya unfortunately didn't sit near Maaya at dinner. He did see, however, the charm bracelet he gave her on her left wrist. And, to his surprise, she blushed when their eyes met and he smiled at her slightly. She spent the rest of the dinner avoiding his gaze and talking to Ally and Iris instead. Kyouya silently hoped she wasn't mad at him. But that couldn't be, if she was mad, Maaya would make it very obvious. For the life of him, though, Kyouya couldn't understand why she would blush. It wasn't as if she shared his feelings…or did she? He mentally shook his head, that wasn't possible. They barely knew each other. Luckily, before he could get into another mental discussion with himself and doubted his sanity, Avondale distracted him by asking what he planned to do after graduating, or if he would return to Japan anytime soon. Kyouya was grateful for the distraction and they spent the dinner discussing the educational value of different colleges and universities.

After dinner, Sam called everyone into the Christmas tree room for something a family tradition they'd been doing for the past four years. He explained that every year Avery, Garrett, and Murtagh – with suggestions for pictures/videos and music from everyone – put together a movie/slide-show on a DVD with videos and pictures from the past year which they all watched after dinner. Everyone sat down, some piling two on a chair for the fun of it, and watched the movie. It showed various pictures, some of one person, or a whole group. There were also videos, one in which everyone was dancing 80's style in 50's clothing. There were countless memories, most of which made everyone or at least half the room laugh. Surprisingly, they had even included recent pictures and videos of the Host Club. The creators had also included captions such as "End of Finals", "Christmas Dance", and "HALLOWEEN!!" It was clear that out of all the holidays, Christmas and Halloween were everyone's favorites. The DVD ended with a black screen and the words "THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT MEMORIES!! WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED REMEMBERING THEM WITH US!!!"Once that was done, Avery, Garrett, and 'Tagh all passed out copies for everyone.

Eventually everyone dispersed, but most stayed to watch _It's a Wonderful Life_ on TV. Kyouya went upstairs to his room to relax and enjoy reading a book. What he found instead though was a gift lying on his bed. It was wrapped in blue wrapping paper covered in large white snowflakes scattered sporadically about. The gift was of a rectangular shape and rather heavy. He neatly unwrapped the present and set it aside.

Underneath was a book, well actually three books. The first was small and thin, something he could easily read in a day. It was titled _The Five People You Meet in Heaven._ Actually, Kyouya _had _read this book, just a few weeks ago. He opened the book to find it was signed by the author and had an inscription on the front cover _"To my dearest friend, I hope you get as much out of this book as I did. I love you and always will, no matter what. Love, Your Father." _Kyouya wondered if this had been addressed by the giver's father or if it was second-hand. The second book was paperback and quite heavy. The title said _The Complete Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm._ The third book was the biggest yet and entitled _A Compilation of Poems Written by Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, and Walter de la Mare. _The second book contained no additional writing, but the last one contained a hand-written note.

Dear Kyouya, I hope you enjoy these books as much as I did. The last one is actually the work of a friend. She's a very good writer with a rather terrible family. These three poets are her favorites, so she made a compilation of their poems that she believes go well together and have made me feel better on many occasion. Sam is currently putting it into print and this is one of the few proto-types in existence. Don't worry, I still have three extra. The first book you may have read, but I thought you'd like a copy to read again. It's a very moving story and this copy was actually given to my friend by his father before he passed. He thought I could use it after mine died, and now I pass it on to you. I know your father is still alive, but the meaning is just the same and maybe there will come a time when you will pass the book on to someone else in need. The Grimm Brothers' stories are amusing in parts and depressing in others, but they contain two key elements that everyone needs – hope and belief in happy endings. These books have helped me in countless ways, and I hope they help you as well. I also hope they remind you that no matter what happens or how far we are apart, I will always be there for you whenever you need me.

Love,

Maaya

Kyouya re-read the last two words of the letter over and over. He couldn't get them out of his head. He slowly sat down on the bed and stared blankly at the wall. What did she mean by "Love, Maaya"? It obviously meant she loved him, but in what way? In a friendly way? As a brother? As a boyfriend? Kyouya simply sighed and put his head in his hands. No he was completely and utterly…lost. Eventually he got up and threw the wrapping paper into a small garbage can and set the note on his desk, unsure of what to do with it. Then he opened up the book of fairytales to the first story and began to read.

After that it was strange being around Maaya. He found himself suddenly nervous, unsure of how to act around her. He still didn't know to what form of love she'd been referring to when she wrote that letter and he was too afraid to ask. Love is cruel it seems. One thing he never failed to notice was that whenever he saw her, she was wearing the charm bracelet he'd given her on her left wrist. Also, whenever she looked at it, she smiled softly. Rina teased her about it on occasion and Kyouya knew she was helping Maaya to figure out who it was from. Tamaki had asked several times and Maaya told him that it was something a very close friend had given her, but would say no more. Kyouya had smiled when he heard that. He longed to tell her it was he who had given her the bracelet, but as with asking about the note, he was too afraid.

Fear is a strange and frightening thing. Sometimes when you should be terrified, it abandons you, but in others when you should be daring and just go for whatever it is you're after, it's there, always at the back of your mind – nagging, nagging, nagging. Like a fly in the room that you can't ignore and you can't catch – annoying you constantly with its irritating buzz, buzz, buzz. Kyouya could feel his fear at the back of his mind like an ever-present fly, always with its annoying buzz: rejection, rejection, rejection.

After a while though, fear loses its edge and you can ignore it. Kyouya still wouldn't ask Maaya about the note or tell her about the charm bracelet, but when New Year's Eve came around, he'd already made up his mind not to be afraid and talk to Maaya as he always had; and he did. He treated her as a friend, and she the same. The awkwardness that had evolved after Christmas had disappeared and it was like old times again. Curious, how Kyouya referred to his moments with Maaya as old times when they'd barely known each other a month, and hadn't really known each other long enough to talk about "old times."

New Year's came and went like cars at a gas station. One moment here, gone the next. They celebrated New Year's joyously and all of the adults, except Katelyn, Jien, Sam, and a few others got completely drunk. No one else was allowed to drink any alcohol. Along with the New Year came Maaya and Rina's seventeenth birthday. They blew out all thirty four candles together. Everyone clapped and cheered afteerwards and for once, someone was taking pictures other than Maaya. They received a few more gifts, one of which made Maaya glare at Garrett and Avery as they laughed. It was violin sheet music for Pachelbell's Canon in D Major.

Alec explained to those who didn't understand that Maaya had played cello in the string quartet in her freshman year at St. Judith's. It was a very prestigious group and the audition pieces were extremely complicated, almost nobody could get them right. But Maaya had, but not as a violinist. She was a cellist and completely okay with this. The song, Pachelbel's Canon in D Major contained the most boring cello part in history. You played four quarter notes fifty-four times throughout the song. And the string quaret played this song every single year. Maaya _hated_ it with a passion, and so as a joke, Garett and Avery gave it to her for her birthday. Kyouya smiled and shook his head; it was something Hikaru and Kaoru would do.

Over the course of the next few days, everyone left. They went back home before school and work started all over again. There were a lot of hugs, kisses, and teary good-byes, especially on Tamaki's part. No one wanted to leave; they'd enjoyed their stay at Sam's house with all its crazy occupants and wonderful memories. Eventually, though, the house emptied and only a few were left. The house was down to its original occupants, with two additions. Murtagh was staying on until school started since he had nowhere better to go due to his lousy relations with his father and mother. And, of course, Kyouya was staying as he planned on joining Maaya and Rina at St. Judith's once the semester started up again on January 15th.

That was still ten days away, though, so no need to rush or worry as his uniform and papers were to arrive in just a few days time. All was well and everyone was happy, especially Cale and his new puppy, Sammy. There was just one thing missing, and it was perhaps the most important of all: Kyouya had yet to tell Maaya that he loved her.


	15. Chapter 15

YES!!!!!!! I FINISHED!!!!!!! =D I'm very happy as you can tell. This is my first story that I've written just for fun that I've actually finished. And I made it within my dead-line with 2 hours 10 minutes to go! :) Surprisingly, this story is actually quite long. It's about 98 pages on my word document. As a last note, I would just like to thank all of those who have read, reviewed, added my story to their favorites, or alert- thingy. Especially my friend Tori for all your help and amusing ideas. Your support has meants a lot and I hope you like anything else I write later on. So hear it is, the one we've all been waiting for, the final chapter of this story. ENJOY! =)

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The house was empty, Katelyn and Jien had gone to a theater to watch some of the old black and white movies that were playing, Rina and Murtagh had gone out, and Sam and Cale took Sammy to the vet for a check-up and a walk. No one would be home for a while, so Maaya and Kyouya officially had the house to themselves.

They were sitting in the room with the Christmas tree, enjoying each other's company as Kyouya read more of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and Maaya watched a movie called _Family Man_. It was about a business man who got a second chance at life as a suburban father with a loving wife and daughter, and a job as a tire salesman.

Once the movie was over, though, Maaya was bored. She leaned back into the couch with a sigh and crossed her arms. She didn't say anything, however, as she didn't want to interrupt Kyouya in his reading. Suddenly a smile lit up her face and she sat up with an evil gleam in her eye. Kyouya glanced up from his book and raised an eyebrow at her face. "What are you thinking?" he asked warily as he put his book aside.

"I'm thinking we should go sledding," Maaya responded, almost bouncing on the couch in anticipation.

"Why?" Kyouya asked, bewildered.

"Because we have a really good hill, awesome sleds, and the perfect type of snow to go sledding. It's also only one o'clock, so there's enough light out to last for hours," she answered excitedly.

Kyouya sighed; he could see it was hopeless. Maaya was clearly determined to go sledding and he knew he was getting dragged along with or without his consent. "Fine."

"Yay!" she exclaimed before dashing upstairs to get her coat and other clothing items to protect her against the cold as Kyouya followed grudgingly behind her. It was times like these that he could see her and Rina's resemblance to their cousin Tamaki.

Kyouya sighed as Maaya dragged him up the hill with a tiny purple sled in each of their hands. They were plastic and flimsy, but according to Maaya worked the best, unless you had a toboggan, but hers was broken. She'd run into a tree last year and cracked it. Kyouya shook his head as they each got into a sleigh and pushed off.

Surprisingly, it was actually quite fun. Kyouya had never been sledding before, but found it quite exhilarating. The wind rushing through your hair and in your face, the snow passing quickly beneath your sled and the ever-impending danger of running into one of the trees on the hill; it all worked together to create a moment that took your breath away.

Maaya shouted with joy the whole way down the hill and laughed when she turned her sled and ended up falling out. Kyouya's stop wasn't much better, though. She then raced him up the hill and they went down again. They repeated the ride quite a few times, but after their fifth run, their legs had started to tire out from running up the hill. So, it wasn't all that much of a surprise when Maaya tripped over her sleigh, and fell into Kyouya. He was unprepared for this and ended up falling backwards and the two of them fell down the hill, clinging to each other closely.

The pair tumbled through the snow, rolling down the somewhat-steep slope as gravity carried the both of them downward. Maaya laughed as she clung to him, her smile bright and her eyes shining. The sight of her so close made him want to kiss her so badly, Kyouya could barely take it. His heart raced wildly, it was a wonder she couldn't hear it.

Finally they rolled to a stop, still on the hill. Somehow, they'd started rolling sideways along the hill and eventually stopped with Kyouya on top of Maaya. She smiled her cheeks red with embarrassment at their situation. He expected her to shove him away, but instead she reached up to rest her cold hand on his warm cheek. "Your hands are freezing," he stated, expecting it to ruin the moment, but it didn't. Oddly enough, the sentence seemed to enhance it.

Never before had she been so close, it almost seemed as if she loved him back. Her warm breath ghosted across his face, making his thoughts swirl. Maaya placed her other hand on his neck, making him shudder at the coldness of it. She turned her head away, as if meaning to get up, but he gently grabbed her chin, using his right arm to keep his weight from crushing her. He leaned down as she gazed at him in confusion and before he could register what his body was doing, their lips met in a kiss.

Maaya's eyes widened in shock for a second, but she immediately relaxed into the kiss. They rolled once more so that they were both on their sides on the ground. Kyouya reached up to caress her cheek with his hand. Their gloves had disappeared during the frightening and thrilling roll down the hill.

They broke apart, breathing puffs of moist air into each other's face. Maaya moved to take her hands off his neck, but Kyouya covered them with his own instead, trying to warm them up. She rolled her eyes at him as she snuggled closer in the cold snow. She rested her head against his chest, closing her eyes in happiness. Kyouya smiled as he rested his chin on her head, breathing in the scent of her hair. He'd finally told her the truth of how he felt, okay, he more _showed_ her and had yet to actually _tell_ her that he loved her, but these were mere technicalities.

"Your heart's pounding," Maaya stated as she moved her hands to his chest.

"It always is when I'm close to you," he confessed. She sighed in contentment as they lay there in the snow, enjoying the closeness of each other.

"Come on, there's somewhere I want to show you," she said suddenly as she yanked him up from the snow. Maaya laughed when she saw his appearance, his face was tinged with pink, his hair disheveled, and his clothes were covered with snow.

"What?" he asked, smirking. She didn't look much better, her hat was lopsided, her face almost entirely red, and she was completely covered with snow.

"Nothing, just thinking how Tamaki would freak if he saw this. He'd be ranting about our 'inappropriate appearances in front of small children' for days. That and he'd probably shoot you if he saw us kissing," she explained, blushing at the word 'kissing.'

"Most likely, although, as I recall it, he _wanted_ you to have a boyfriend," Kyouya replied with a smirk.

"True, but the fact that we were _kissing_," again she blushed even worse, "before even dating would make him flip. That _and _the fact that you were on top of me." By the time she finished, her whole face was red and somehow she'd ended up about six feet away from him.

"Maaya, why are you blushing?"Kyouya asked, striding over to her and cradling her in his arms. "It's almost as if the thought of us kissing _embarrasses_ you."

"Um….well…uh….maybe a little," she stammered, burrowing her head in his chest. "Come on, let's go already," she suddenly said, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward an obscure path in the woods.

At first Kyouya was worried that she might be angry with him, but then he noticed her smile and that her face was still red. It was quite amusing to see her normally cool and stoic face red as a tomato. Now _that_ was an expression he'd like to see more often.

Maaya quickly led him along the small, narrow path to a clearing. It was not the same clearing that she'd fainted in. This one was more round, rather than oval, and had a swinging bench instead of a stationary one. The trees were old, with huge trunks, some you couldn't even fit your arms around them. The clearing was peaceful and quiet as their boots crunched the snow underfoot.

Kyouya, suddenly overcame with an idea, walked over to Maaya from behind and circled his arms around her. She stiffened for a second, but realizing it was just him as he rested his chin on her shoulder, she relaxed. "Well, aren't you turning into a regular Casanova?" she asked with a smirk.

"No, I just wondered how you'd react if I did this. That and two bodies are warmer than one," he replied cheekily. She shook her head at his antics.

"You're just trying to make me blush aren't you?" she accused.

"Perhaps, but I know something that would work much better than just hugging you," he answered.

"What?" she asked suspiciously.

"This," Kyouya answered, swiftly picking her up and sitting on the bench with her on his lap. He stretched his legs out on the bench which was amazingly long enough to fit them as he leaned his back against the railing.

"You little sneak!" she cried as she struggled to get up, but Kyouya quickly circled one arm around her stomach and the other around her shoulder. He also trapped her hands within his own so she couldn't move. "Humph!" "

"Your heart's still racing," she muttered a few seconds later, trying to make him blush as well.

"Not as fast as yours is though," he replied as he ran his nose along her jaw line, causing her to shiver as her eyes slid closed.

"You're evil, you know that?"

"I know. I never said you had to like it though."

She just glared in response.

Kyouya smirked and rested his chin in her hair. He moved his hands so that both circled around her waist, freeing her hands in the process. "Happy now?" he asked.

"A little," Maaya replied as she rested her hands on top of his. She wouldn't admit it to him, but she was actually _very_ happy at that moment. She loved the way it felt to lean up against him, like a perfectly molded chair and how his hands circled around her. Maaya felt completely safe and content, knowing Kyouya would never let her go. _This must be how Rina feels when she's with Tagh_, she thought to herself. _No wonder she spends so much time with him. It's almost as if Kyouya is a part of me, as if we were made just for each other. Someone I can always trust completely._ She loved her sister and could tell her anything, but being with Kyouya was entirely different. She'd only known him for a month and already she felt she could trust him with anything.

"Liar," he whispered in reply.

"What?" she asked accusingly.

"I said you're a liar. You aren't just a little happy, you're extremely happy. You're so easy to read, even when I can't see your face," Kyouya answered smugly. _I should tell her now while we're still alone,_ he thought to himself nervously.

"Damn! Rina was right, it _is _annoying when you guys do that," she muttered.

"Do what?"

"Read our minds."

"Well, it's not that hard. And considering this is one of the best moments of my life, I assumed it'd be something like that for you."

Maaya's eyes widened in surprise. He'd just completely thrown himself out there for her. That was something he'd never done before, not for her, not for anyone. "Now why'd you have to go and say something like that?" she asked angrily.

"Something like what?" he asked somewhat nervously.

"Something so sweet and perfect. It's be just plain cruel if I made a sarcastic comment to it. Hmph!" she replied, folding her arms across her chest in annoyance.

Kyouya laughed. Only Maaya would say something like that. "Would you rather I said something to make you blush instead?"

"Well, no, but still. You keep saying the right things, it's almost as if you know exactly what I'm thinking and how to make sure I don't have a way to say something sarcastic about it."

Kyouya smirked, "But, of course. I can't have you mocking me _all_ the time."

"So you're saying I can mock you _some_ of the time?" she asked hopefully.

He shook his head in exasperation. "I suppose so; otherwise I wouldn't hear the end of it, from you or anyone else."

Maaya smiled. She could have jumped for joy at still being able to annoy him but didn't want to get up. She was so comfortable. Maaya sighed, she didn't know why, but she kept getting this nagging feeling that Kyouya had something important to say. Indeed, it almost felt as if he was just waiting for the right moment to say it. "You were right, you know."

"About what?"

"This being one of the best moments of my life, and it's all because of you." Maaya leaned back into him, reveling in his warmth. Her eyes slid closed and she let out a sigh of contentment.

"I'm glad that I could make you so happy," Kyouya replied. He smiled with joy.

"Are you going to go back?" she asked after a few minutes of contented silence.

"Go back where?"

"To Japan, to talk to your father. You can't really leave things the way they are right now."

"I know. I suppose I will. I'm just not sure when. It won't be for a while though, not until I can prove to him that he's wrong and it shouldn't matter who I marry."

Maaya sighed in disappointment. She didn't want to talk about him leaving, not when she'd just realized how much he meant to her.

"What's wrong?" Kyouya asked, hearing the sad tone as she sighed.

"Nothing, I shouldn't have brought it up. I'm sorry," she replied, avoiding his question.

"It's fine, I've been thinking about it for a while now. You still didn't answer my question though."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Too bad. I'll make you tell me."

"How?"

"Oh, I have my ways." Maaya could imagine the smirk on his face as he said this.

"Grr. Oh fine, I was just thinking that I didn't want you to leave. There, happy?" she replied, clearly embarrassed at saying such a thing. Suddenly she rolled over so that she was lying on her stomach instead of her back. Her cheek rested against his chest.

"What was that for?" Kyouya asked, wondering why she suddenly changed positions.

"So I can hear your heart better," she replied with her eyes closed.

"And why would you want to do that?" he asked in curiosity.

"It's relaxing. That and it keeps me warmer."

Kyouya shook his head. They stayed like that for a while, just relaxing in each other's company. "I wouldn't leave you know," he suddenly admitted.

"What?" Maaya asked, confused.

"If you wanted me to stay rather than go back to Japan, I would."

"But you have to go back, you said so yourself."

"And yet you don't want me to go."

"Well, it's not so much that I don't want you to go. It's more of, I don't want to be so far away from you," she confessed.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to take you with me. Although hiding you from your grandmother would be rather difficult, but I think I could manage it."

"You mean you'd take me with you when you left?" she asked as she sat up so she could see his face. Kyouya took his legs of the bench so she could sit down on the actual bench instead of his legs.

"If that's what you want."

"But why?"

Kyouya sighed. "Isn't it obvious? Because I love you and will do whatever it takes to make you happy."

Maaya stared at him in shock. "You love me?" she asked in disbelief.

"Yes, as frustratingly stubborn and sarcastic as you are, I love you."

Maaya was at a loss for words. She smiled happily and hugged him tightly. She burrowed her face into his chest and said, "I love you too."

Kyouya stared in shock at her for a moment before hugging her tightly to his chest and pulling her back into his lap. He rested his chin on her head and sighed in contentment. It was the happiest moment in his life. "And it would be a good way to show my father how wrong he is," he stated suddenly.

"What would?"

"Taking you to Japan and introducing you as my girlfriend," Kyouya smirked at the thought.

"Maybe," Maaya replied.

"Maybe?" Kyouya asked.

"Yes, maybe. Maybe it would annoy him more if we said we were _engaged_."

"I dare say it would. But let's not discuss such a topic anymore. The thought of you, me, and my father in one room is not a very pleasant subject."

"Then what _do_ you want to discuss?"

"Well, there's not really anything to discuss, but I was thinking it's getting rather cold out and we should probably go inside."

"Probably. But I don't wanna get up," Maaya answered.

"I can fix that," Kyouya replied as he picked her up and started walking towards the path at the southern end of the clearing.

Rather than uselessly fight back and demand to be put down, Maaya said, "You're evil, you know that?"

"Yes. They don't call me the Shadow King for nothing. By the way, that shade of pink looks lovely on your face," he retorted with a smirk as he referred to the blush staining her cheeks.

Maaya's eyes widened in shock at the mention of her blush, which turned a darker shade of red. Then she glared. "You can put me down, you know. I don't have a problem with walking."

"I know, but I don't want to let you go," Kyouya replied.

Maaya sighed and shook her head in exasperation. "You're impossible."

"Funny, I could say the same about you," he laughed.

He eventually put her down when they reached the door so that he could open it. Maaya smiled triumphantly at this as the pair walked in the side entrance and down the hallway to the coat rack. They hung their coats to dry before going upstairs – Maaya prancing like a ballerina and Kyouya simply walking. "You are worse than a little kid, you know that?" he observed in a clearly amused voice.

"Yes. I've known for quite some time now and I'm okay with it. It's _much_ more fun that behaving like a grown-up. Yuck!" Maaya replied cheekily as she raced up the stairs. He smiled at her exuberance as they entered their rooms to change into warm, dry clothing.

Maaya strolled out of her room and twirled in a circle out of joy. She smiled brightly as she softly closed the door. She just couldn't believe it, after all this time of not having any interest in the immature, idiotic boys at her school or in town; she'd finally fallen in love and gotten her first kiss. Maaya felt as though she could die of happiness right then as she skipped to Kyouya's room and knocked on his door, unsure if he was still getting dressed.

"Come in," Kyouya replied as he threw a tan button-down shirt over his blue T-shirt. Maaya smiled even wider and strolled in before collapsing on his bed, her legs dangling off the side. Kyouya raised an eyebrow at her actions.

"What? After a vigorous romp in the snow, I'm not allowed to rest?" she asked, raising an eyebrow of her own in response.

Kyouya just shook his head and lay down next to her. "I never said that, I was just wondering why you were doing that in _my_ room, on _my_ bed."

"Because I feel like spending time with you and I knew you wouldn't come into my room, so I took the initiative since you still have walls and idiotic habits to break, and I've already discarded mine," Maaya replied easily, closing her eyes as she relaxed, not noticing the shocked look he gave her.

After a few seconds, she slowly opened her eyes to see his shocked face. "What? You're not that hard to figure out, you know. Even though you may look like you're emotionless and hide behind a mask and wall of fake heartlessness, you're still a human being. And for another matter, you're very similar to how I used to act after I had to move to Pennsylvania with only Jack as company."

Kyouya continued to stare at her in shock. "You know, if you keep looking at me like that, pretty soon your muscles will cramp up and your face will be stuck like that. It's an amusing look, I'll admit, but definitely not your most appealing," Maaya added, she wasn't looking at him, having shut her eyes again. When he didn't respond, she sighed. "That's interesting," she mused quietly after a few moments.

"What?" Kyouya asked.

"I'm not complaining or anything like that, there's not really anything I want, it' just an observation, but you never actually gave me a birthday gift," she told him, her eyes still closed.

"Oh, really?" Kyouya asked, a smirk forming on his face as he thought devious things.

"Yes, really," she replied, still not opening her eyes. Kyouya's smile widened when she didn't say or do anything else.

"Well then, I'll just have to remedy that," he said with a smirk.

"How? There's nothing I want," Maaya answered, opening her eyes in suspicion.

"Oh, I can think of something." And without waiting for a reply, Kyouya gently, yet firmly, placed his hand under her chin and kissed her softly. Maaya just rolled her eyes at his antics before kissing him back. He smirked before breaking the kiss. "That should be enough to satisfy you since now I've technically given you two birthday gifts."

Maaya just shook her head at him as she smiled. "Not really, you never said 'happy birthday' afterwards and didn't make any mention of a gift, so my first kiss doesn't count," she replied with a smirk.

"Fine then," Kyouya said before giving her a quick kiss. "Happy belated birthday. Happy now?"

"Yes… Wow, who'd have thought that I have something to thank Tamaki for?" Maaya pondered.

"What for?"

"Well, technically I should thank your father, too. Because if he wasn't such a prick, then you wouldn't have decided to leave or enlisted Tamaki for help, therefore not giving him the chance to suggest you stay with Sam. And if that hadn't happened, I would never have met you. So now I have to thank him," she explained.

"That's a very good point, but I'm sure we would have met one way or another. Eventually it would have crossed Tamaki's mind to visit you, or for you to invite him over. And he would drag the entire Host Club along as an adventure."

"True. Oh, and by the way, you were my best gift," she replied before leaning up and kissing him. Kyouya smiled into the kiss. He had actually found a place he could call home.

_**The End**_


End file.
